Minecraft: Story Mode Tumblr Fics
by Ariza Luca
Summary: Basically a collection of the short fics that I post on my Tumblr. (rated T for safeTy)
1. Smoking

"You know smoking's bad for you, right?"

Romeo licks his lips absentmindedly, looking down at the cigarette in his hand. A thin, curling trail of translucent white smoke wends its way a few inches up before dissipating in the wind. "Tastes disgusting, too."

Jesse lets out a huff of laughter, plopping down next to him and almost bouncing. "Maybe you shouldn't smoke, then."

The former Admin shrugs, touching the thin stick to his lips and inhaling deeply, before tugging it away and releasing the smoke in a cloud that emits from his mouth all at once, dissolving quickly in the wind. "Probably."

They roll their eyes at him, fingers twitching as if they're thinking about shooting their hand out and snatching it out of his grip, but they just keep their arms around their knees in a hug. "So, stop smoking."

"Nah."

Romeo likes the way Jesse's mouth curves up at the ends as they chuckle, turning their head away and staring out over Beacontown. "So. How's being human suiting you?"

"It's… different than what I've become used to," he says, honestly. "Sometimes I forget to breathe or eat or even drink water."

Because he does forget to do that; he doesn't inhale until his lungs start screaming at him, berating him, beating him around the head with a newspaper until he inhales and starts air circulating through his system until he forgets to inhale again, he'll go for several days without eating, or at least he did before Stella whacked him on the shoulder, shoved some burnt food in his face, and started supervising his food intake like a hawk, and he'd once gone for three days without drinking water before Radar had taken him aside and started coaching him on how to drink water periodically so that he didn't die of dehydration.

Jesse gives a sheepish laugh and rubs their head, regarding him almost sympathetically. "Wow, uh, hope that you fix that soon. You'll get used to it quick."

"Sure hope so," the former Admin mutters, making Jesse chuckle again. Their laugh is light and lilting, like the thin trail of smoke emitting from the almost stick-like thing in his fingers.

When they finally stop laughing, they glance at him, green eyes reflecting in the moonlight. "How's Xara?"

He pauses, eyes gravitating to the cigarette in his fingers, ash dripping off of the end as it slowly burns down.

"She wants to kill me."

"Doesn't everyone?" Jesse replies, drily, and Romeo can't help but snort at that statement, because damn it's true. He's gotten nervous about walking around without people in dark areas because he's afraid he's going to get jumped. Heck, he tailed Radar for two months before Radar started getting a little jumpy and asking him to not do that.

At least Petra doesn't seem to hate him as much anymore. And Lukas seems… at least normal around him.

But Xara, well, he can understand her hating him.

He did kill her best friend (and his, too, because Fred was just as much his best friend as he was hers), lock her in a prison underground (to rot, to waste away, to go insane with insomnia), he bedrocked over the world that they'd created (their world, THEIR creation, something that they had all made together, and he just built over it all, built a whole new world over the ruins of the old one as if it hadn't mattered, as if he hadn't cared)…

"Hey, I never asked you this," he said, glancing at Jesse out of the corner of his eye.

They turn to look at him quizzically, green eyes blinking owlishly as they wait for his query.

"Why did you save me?"

"How do you mean?" Jesse's response is quick, but not clear. Their eyes show the confusion at the question.

"Back in the Terminal Zone. You could've left me there. But you didn't." Romeo looks back out over Beacontown, lamps lighting up the whole place periodically, golden light and light from Sea Lanterns washing the whole city in a clashing but beautiful glow.

He lets his eyes drift over the prismarine that's still there from when he smashed through Jesse's city like he was a toddler playing with cars and blocks.

The building floating above the Order Hall, decorated with green trees and flowers wreathed beautifully around the whole thing, but something that didn't belong.

Something that stuck out like a sore thumb.

The stage area that everyone had left there because it was beautifully built and it was fun to have little productions up there, it was fun to play on it, and there'd been a few very well-done performances staged on it already.

"I hurt you. I locked you underground. I stole your city and broke it beyond repair, beyond a point of no return. I tried to kill you."

"In all honesty, it's hard to take someone trying to kill you personally when half of the people you meet try to do it," Jesse says lazily, shooting him a cheeky grin.

He concedes the point with a roll of his eyes, before glancing at Jesse again. "But… I didn't deserve your mercy. I didn't deserve you being nice to me. I certainly didn't deserve you helping me when everything around us was breaking apart."

When he was an Admin (was, was, the word slips off of his tongue so easily now), it might've been a struggle to admit it. But now, the admission slides out of his mouth like water off of silk.

"So…"

Jesse lets out a small laugh, hugging their knees even more tightly. "Yeah, you're not the first to give me that sort of 'why did you do it'. And I probably have every right to hate you."

"There's no 'probably' about it. You definitely have every right to hate me," Romeo replies, touching the cigarette to his mouth and taking another inhale of the foul-tasting smoke.

"Okay, I definitely have every right to hate you, then," Jesse replies, giving him a playful face at the interruption. "And I definitely have every right to hate Aiden. I have every right to hate Cassie Rose, to hate Mevia, and Hadrian, and the Warden, and heck, I probably have every right to be mean to Stella, too."

Jesse's playful smile becomes more serious, more even and measured and calm compared to their usual cheeky grin. "But I also have every right to hate Ivor. Soren, Gabriel, Ellegaard, Magnus. I have every right to hate Harper, for making PAMA. I have every right to hate Em, maybe even Nell. Heck, at this point, I have every right to hate all of my friends, if I really wanted to. And if I went around hating people based on if I had the right to hate them, I'd be a very lonely person."

"But you don't have to care about them."

He's not joking around anymore.

He's looking at Jesse, the cigarette dangling from his fingers loosely, eyes fixed on the petite hero with a seriousness that he doesn't usually have present on his face nowadays.

"You have every right to hate them, and yet not only do you not hate them, you actually care about them. I've seen the letters you exchanged with them. I've seen how you treat the people you have every right to hate."

Jesse gives a light shrug. "Well… of course I care about them. It's not my place to decide whether to condemn people or not."

"But Jesse, you are aware of what they did to you, right? You're aware of what I did to you, right? I put your town in eternal winter as leverage so that you'd be my friend. And then when we didn't agree, I locked you in a prison buried in bedrock, fully intending to just let you rot there," Romeo puts special emphasis on the word 'rot'.

Jesse considers Romeo's words, touching their lips as they think.

Finally, they lower their hand and gives him a wry smile. "Romeo, I'm going to share a secret with you that I used to help Lukas write more believable stories. It's something Aiden taught me, before we even got along."

The former Admin blinks. "I… alright?"

"The villains of any story? They don't think of themselves as the villains. They think of themselves as the hero. The story that the heroes think is theirs? It's their story. And in their story, the hero is the villain."

Jesse's smile widens a little. "Yeah, they're doing bad things. But they're doing it for a cause that they think is worthy to do it for."

Jesse shrugs. "When you consider that, it's hard to hate people. They're doing something because they really think that what they're doing it for is right. Not to mention, sometimes the heroes act more messed up than the villains. There isn't any black and white, 'good and evil' like you see in stories. There are shades of gray in everything, and when everything is gray, then it's hard to make out what I'm supposed to feel towards it."

Romeo stares at Jesse for a moment. All he can think of to say is, "Are you sure Lukas should be the author of the group?"

Jesse laughs at that, the serious mood lightening a bit at that. "Probably. I'm more of the pep-talker, if anything."

The former Admin looks back at the cigarette in his hands. It's getting rather short.

Finally, he says quietly, "But I still don't understand why you saved me."

"What's so confusing about it?"

Romeo hesitates, glancing at Jesse as they lean their cheek on their hand. He doesn't want to mention the elephant in the room.

But he finally does.

"Because you died instead of me."

Jesse's faint smile fades to a blank expression.

"You're not actually… here." Romeo rubs his hand down his face with a low sigh. "If anything, you're a figment of my imagination. I don't even know why I'm bothering to ask you anything."

"You've got my personality down pat, considering I'm a part of your imagination."

Romeo snorts at Jesse's comment, hand still covering his eyes. He doesn't want to look at Jesse. "I still don't know why you bothered to save me."

* * *

He can still remember it. Radar had brought the giant Enderman. And it had distracted that glitching prismarine colossus from killing them, screeching and roaring intermingling so loudly that the ground was echoing.

But at the last second, the ground had disappeared in a spray of sparks beneath his feet, he could still feel panic welling up in him in a desperate bubble, arms smacking into stone floor with a large amount of force and making his elbows ache.

A hand tightening on his forearm, hauling him up before the ground he was desperately clawing, clinging onto with all of his will, could vanish beneath him. Jesse hauling him along. "Romeo, come on!"

The lava already starting to destroy the portal, creeping down over it as gravity inevitably tugged it down.

Jesse was going to make it through.

He wouldn't.

That thought barely crossing his mind before he suddenly felt Jesse's grip on his arm change, squeezing so hard he could feel it bruising.

A yank and then a shove.

Stumbling forward towards the portal, twisting over his shoulder, eyes widening.

Jesse's hands falling to their sides from the shove, skidding to a halt already, green eyes set resolutely.

The feeling of falling through a curtain, swirls of iridescent white curling around his arms, his chest, running itself through his hair.

And then Jesse disappearing from sight as lava blocked them from view and the portal tugged him into that space, that weird world between a portal and the other location it leads to.

And then flying out backwards, back slamming into hard ground with enough force to wonder if something had broken, but he doesn't even have time to claw air back into his lungs because he feels as if someone has shoved a pillow over his mouth, doesn't have time to scream that they have to go back even though he knows full damn well that Jesse isn't going to be able to come through.

And then watching the portal close in on itself before vanishing in a spray of purple sparks.

Erasing any hope that Jesse might've been able to slip through.

* * *

"You… I don't even know what happened, if you got deleted or erased from existence or if you're even still alive, but you're sure as hell not here," Romeo says at last, making a vague gesture. "You could've just let me die in there. Heck, Jesse, I deserved it."

Jesse sits there for a moment.

And then they give him a small smile.

"You know, for someone who thinks he's talking to a figment of his imagination, you sure like asking answers to questions that you couldn't possibly know the answers to."

He doesn't know how he's supposed to respond to that.

"Here, I'll impart two last little bits of Jesse wisdom advice on you," Jesse says, wiggling their eyebrows at him and making him huff out some laughter.

"The first bit is this: sure, maybe you deserved it, but who has the right to decide that? Certainly not me. I'm not going to look down on someone unless I'm helping them up. I know your name, and what you've done. But I don't know your story, or what you've been through. If I don't know that, then I don't have the right to judge their fate."

Romeo considers the statement for a moment. He feels like this is directed at himself; since he used to do just that.

He still does that.

But he considers the statement anyway.

"The second bit of advice, or wisdom or whatever this is supposed to be," Jesse says, a bit dramatically, enough to make Romeo chuckle, "is this."

They lean forward, so close that if they were real, Romeo could reach out and boop their nose. A secretive smile is on their face.

"Who said I wasn't actually here?"

They're gone in the next blink, but he can still hear their voice whispering in their ear.

"You know, it's kinda funny, Romeo."

"The Terminal Zone might not have been able to hold together without an Admin's power…"

"But it sure has a lot of power of its own."

" _See you soon."_

* * *

 **A/N: Yes, I know I have been AWOL for, like, another month. Honestly, I'm experiencing a block on HCM and am considering dropping the fic altogether because of how much time it takes up, and I'm also debating if I need to drop a few more fics.**

 **However, I have been active on Tumblr, and started writing oneshot fics there based on headcanons and whatnot, so here we are.**

 **Hope y'all enjoy these. xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	2. Unanswered Questions

Jesse has been so busy that they didn't eat before.

It wasn't on purpose; just a gradual thing that as more and more people move into Beacontown, as more and more people wake up earlier or have obscene sleep schedules or need Jesse's help, Jesse's had to learn to eat quickly, and eventually, learn how to function on nothing but a bag of chips and a half-brewed cup of coffee every morning.

A bite of a candy bar at lunch.

A peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich at dinner, if they're lucky and have time to sit down. Sometimes, they've just got to go without because dammit the people in the Aquatic District get annoyed with that giant casino machine practically next door.

Eventually, the lack of food and time, combined with a lack of sleep because they've got to run around all day, gets to them. They start looking to hire an intern.

They end up having to spend half a week conducting interviews and rereading applications. It would've gone on longer except for the thin kid that comes in, adjusting his thick-lensed-glasses and holding out a resume to Jesse. They're rather impressed that he comes in directly instead of just mailing it to him.

(After seeing his organizational skills, they hire him on the spot.)

After hiring Radar, Jesse has time to eat a little more food before they have to rush off to help someone.

Only a little, though.

They try to make it more filling. A granola bar at lunch instead just half of that candy bar. A Cup-O-Noodle cup that can be scarfed down pretty quickly after being cooked. A baked potato.

They eat lots of potatoes when they can. They're more filling than the junk food.

Jesse tries to make up for the lack of vegetables that have made their way into their diet by eating lots of fruit; but after Radar found out that they were skimping on their meals he forced them to take Saturdays off and actually eat something remotely filling.

Of course, being his boss, they could've just told him to get back to his job, but for such a skinny kid with glasses that are heavier than a book, Radar can be extremely bossy at times.

(Not that Jesse can say they mind that much. At least they're eating properly now and not just junk food.)

(… although they still eat a lot of potatoes.)

(Jesse really likes potatoes.)

Jesse has been so busy that they didn't eat before, because they want to help people.

* * *

Jesse has hurt themselves before.

Not on purpose some of the time.

(A couple times were… debatably on purpose.)

It's not like they can help tripping down some stairs and slamming their shoulder into a wall, or the time that they nearly break half their ribs when they go on an adventure with Petra and that spider tackles them into the 10-block-deep ravine.

(Ivor is very displeased about that.)

But perhaps they can help when they bite their nails, notice that they're already bitten down a good deal, and then continue to gnaw away at them nervously, releasing a faintly metallic tang in their mouth.

(Later, Axel and Olivia wonder why Jesse's hands are bandaged. They wave it off.)

Maybe they can help it when they feel anger building up inside of them, know they have to release it, to let it go because otherwise it'll stew and build up and fester inside of them, and slam their fist into a wall at full-force to try to release some of it.

(It does release the anger, but it also results in a broken finger that has to be splinted.)

They can probably help it when they are sharpening their sword and they realize absentmindedly they're bringing the sword towards themselves, which is dangerous and something you should never do, but they let it go anyways.

(And then end up cutting a light cut on their cheek, but it's small and goes away after Jesse slaps a band-aid over it.)

Jesse can probably help it when they're digging their fingers into their arm, sinking their nails as deep in as they will go as they keep that smile on their face because this citizen is being so extremely rude but he needs help, so maybe he's just in a bad mood, don't be judgemental Jesse, and there's probably some other way Jesse can keep their temper in check but they're doing the subtlest thing they can while also looking pleasant and helpful as possible.

(Lukas wondered why Jesse was wearing long-sleeved shirts in the middle of the summer.)

And they can probably help it when they wake up in the middle of the night, swallowing a scream before it actually exits their throat but making an awful choking noise in return, clawing the air for Reuben desperately because they need him, trying to push Aiden away without hurting him because they don't want to hurt him, hands hovering in front of them as they debate grabbing the White Pumpkin– Cassie Rose– before she falls into the pit of Endermites because nobody deserves to be trapped, fingers grasping in thin air for a ledge to keep themselves aloft and from falling down, down, down as far as they can into PAMA's core and not looking down because they're terrified of heights, trying to pull the axe out of them before the last of their life drains out of them, panic gripping them as they try to tug out Mevia's axe because they don't want to die, a hand twitching in shock as the Warden topples backwards, blood staining his front and shock in his already deadening pale blue eyes because they don't want to watch someone die, not again.

They can probably help it when they need to find a way to calm themselves down.

(Ivor wonders why Jesse keeps brewing sleeping potions, potions of poison, or alternatively healing potions.)

(He also wonders why Jesse seems to be paler and sometimes sicker when a potion of poison creation coincides with that of a sleeping potion.)

Jesse has hurt themselves before, because they seem to be the type of person to get into little accidents, and sometimes it's the only thing that can calm them down.

* * *

Jesse has hurt people before.

It's unavoidable. Everybody hurts somebody else at some time.

(They feel like they do it more than most, though.)

Jesse can still remember their friend (no, PAMA, because that was PAMA talking through their friends, wasn't it)– PAMA begging them not to deactivate them.

(To please keep it alive.)

(Please.)

There was a moment– a few, brief gut-wrenching seconds where Jesse hesitates, fingers tightening on the side of the Redstone Heart, because PAMA sounds like a child right then and you can't hurt a child– before they made up their mind and heaved it out, even with the pleas PAMA was giving.

Jesse can still remember stalking towards Mevia, her dark, piercing eyes wide with shock as Jesse hammered blow after blow after blow with the pickaxes in their hand, the weapons in their hands because this woman tried to enslave them and their friends for all eternity, it was only fair.

(Jesse didn't care so much about the part where Mevia killed them. It's hard to take someone trying to kill you personally when half of everybody you meet tries to do it.)

And then Mevia tripped straight over the edge with a scream, barely slamming into the glass with a gasp before the pistons engage, smashing together with so much force that she immediately explodes into a plume of dust and smoke, her last scream still echoing in the air.

It's not like Jesse particularly likes Mevia, but still.

This is the sixth death they've witnessed, ever.

It's still no less difficult than watching it the first time or the second time.

Jesse can still remember Hadrian's eyes widening in surprise as Jesse's pickaxe swings out and knocks out the blocks beneath him, because Jesse hasn't really landed a good hit on him, they sort of got lucky with Mevia because she was so surprised, but here they are.

Killing him.

It makes Jesse feel rather uncomfortable when he dies, explodes in a cloud of his inventory and in smoke and dust and who knows what else, scattering ashes all over the ground and mixing with Mevia's slightly.

They feel uncomfortable, because they don't feel anything at all about Hadrian dying.

They felt something bad about Mevia. And she just actually killed them.

But they don't feel anything at all towards Hadrian.

Jesse can still remember drawing their arm back, hand clad in the golden gauntlet and curling into a tight fist as they narrow their eyes at the Admin's face, because he's glitching and sparking and they can no longer even see what the Admin's supposed to look like.

They've punched people in the face before, once or twice, since they don't want to kill anybody, not really, but with all the B-list villains that challenge them they've kind of had to punch people in the face.

But it is still incredibly difficult to watch when a shockwave of energy emits from the impact of the gauntlet smashing into Romeo, vaporizing it on impact, before literally sending him flying into a wall.

Jesse has hurt people before.

And they don't like it.

* * *

Jesse has seen people break before.

It's difficult watching people they know– even if it's not well– shatter, break, crack under the pressure.

Aiden's celery-green eyes have fractures of light in them. If eyes are the window to the soul, then the tiny glimpse that Jesse gets shows that his soul is fracturing and breaking and filled with so many cracks that Jesse balks to confront him at all.

(They were scared that doing it at all was going to break him into a million little pieces, a million irreparable pieces that couldn't be put back together no matter how much superglue and jigsaw-puzzle expertise you had.)

Cassie Rose's arms tighten around the calico cat. Her voice is filled with relief, but it is so unnatural that Jesse's throat tightens. Jesse is willing to bet that if they could really, truly get a good look at Cassie Rose, stare into her eyes, they're going to be starting to crack, just like Aiden's.

(Her voice is already showing the hints, pitchy in the wrong places and getting scarily desperate with each word.)

Jesse thinks about turning back for a moment, turning back and offering to take Cassie with them, because they can find her someplace where she'll be happy, find her someplace where she can fix herself because she's breaking and it's not totally her fault that her soul is breaking apart and she's doing her damndest to hold the pieces that haven't already started flaking off together, clinging to the last shreds of her sanity.

And then they walk away.

The Warden's expression changes to a distant one, and despite the iciness in his pale blue eyes, Jesse sees past it for a moment, for the briefest flicker, the cracks forming in his mind, breaking him apart.

Pressure, unwilling imprisonment, and the eyes of someone who's simply given up stare at Jesse, just for a heartbeat, coaxed out by patient and rather kind words.

And then Stella snaps at Jesse to catch up, and the Warden's eyes harden back to a wall of ice so thick that it keeps his soul from being able to fracture anymore (although it doesn't fix the breaks and cracks that are already there).

Jesse never does coax it back out. Nor do they ever get the chance to fix it.

Romeo. _(Just Romeo.)_ The Admin. ( _Not anymore._ ) A murderer. ( _Not on purpose, perhaps. And he is guilty about it._ ) Completely insane. ( _Cracking under the desire to not be alone, and then bringing on himself thousands of years of being totally in solitude, and the guilt of killing someone, his best friend, and the desperation of not wanting to be alone._ )

Jesse feels bad for him.

They can see that he's breaking. They've been trying to help him fix himself.

The only time they've made any progress is when they found him in their fridge, behind the few items that they kept in there, curled up in a tight ball and struggling to breathe properly, but Jesse is determined to find a way to help him, help fix him, because they haven't done it for other people.

And they should've.

Jesse has seen people break before.

And they can't( _don't_ ) help at all.

* * *

Jesse knows what it's like to break.

They don't want other people to end up shattered on the floor.

So they give as much help as they can, offer their help, trust people as much as they can, care about people as much as they can.

And they end up hurt the most.

In the end, they're the one who ends up shattered on the floor.

But they put themselves back together. Glue the pieces back together, try to eliminate the cracks, ignore the pain because it doesn't matter, they care about the people around them so much.

They don't want the people around them to end up in little pieces all over the floor.

So they help the people around them, trust the people around them, care about the people around them even more.

They end up broken into even more pieces this time.

It's a vicious cycle that keeps repeating, no matter how many people are made happy, no matter how many end up being okay, there are people who aren't okay.

There are people who still end up destroyed all over the floor.

And Jesse is one of them.

Why is it so hard to make people happy?


	3. When You're an Admin

It's interesting how much of a nuisance being human ( _again, it hadn't been the case for a long time, but he was a human again and he'd better damn remember it_ ) can be, especially after being an Admin for the past several thousand years.

When you're an Admin, you don't have to breathe. ( _Sometimes, Romeo found himself lightheaded and dizzy because his lungs hadn't inhaled for the past two minutes and_ jeez _he needed to learn how to actually_ breathe _again.)_

When you're an Admin, you don't have to eat. ( _Romeo nearly starved to death while he was helping Stella rebuild Champion City at one point until Stella started supervising his meals and making him eat food. She can't cook worth beans, but at least he was consuming food and not_ literally starving to death.)

When you're an Admin, you don't have to drink. ( _Radar doesn't like Romeo but he freaked out when he realized Romeo hadn't had any water for the past two or three days and proceeded to give the former Admin a crash course on how if you didn't drink water_ you would literally die.)

When you're an Admin, you don't have to sleep. ( _Xara always loved sleeping, but he wasn't Xara, and besides, every time he slept he always shot straight back up with his throat raw and his voice gone because he'd been screaming in his sleep and there was no one who was there–_ no one– _who heard his sobs and screams and desperate cries.)_

 _(But now he_ has _to sleep or he'll eventually die and he's been saving up moments and snatches of sleep so that he'll have as few nightmares as possible, wakes up with his pillow soaking wet and his lungs complaining for air because he's been screaming into the pillow in his sleep._ )

When you're an Admin, you don't have to worry about people killing you. ( _Xara had grabbed a sword and started storming to him, dark eyes with dark circles underneath blazing with fury. It was only by sheer luck that Jesse had managed to restrain the woman long enough for Romeo to beat a hasty exit._ )

When you're an Admin, you don't have to worry about people looking at you with disguised ( _and undisguised_ ) hatred in their eyes. ( _Romeo'd used to just teleport out of there when people started giving him looks, and he's snapped his fingers a few times before remembering that he can't do that anymore._ )

When you're an Admin, you don't have to worry about having a panic attack in Jesse's fridge because that's the only one in Beacontown that's structured so that an Admin a human being could feasibly fit in it without worrying about breaking and entering.

However, Romeo is not an Admin anymore.

* * *

Romeo hugs his knees tightly, shaky breath coming out in a little cloud. He is currently huddled up in the back of Jesse's fridge, having shifted aside some cheese and a few slices of cake (there was practically nothing in Jesse's fridge, what on earth did they eat?) to get inside.

His heart painfully constricts within his chest, tightening until it feels like it's about to pop. His breathing is shaky and uneven and fast, faster than it should be, so fast that his head is light. He might as well _not_ be breathing.

He'd been planning on using that ventilation shaft from the surface to the Underneath to go find Xara, but the former Admin, with her dark purple hair that was a frizzy, wavy mess that he'd used to love running a comb through in an attempt to tame it and she'd swat at him with a playful grumble but otherwise let him play with it, had beat him to it.

She'd arrived at the surface through the portal (the one with the item frame, the one that Fred had pleaded that they use birch to make because he _loved_ birch), according to Jesse, who'd been visiting the Old Order's temple to check up on things.

He could still see her dark, piercing eyes widen at the sight of him as he walked into the room to ask Jesse a question ( _because being a literal god for the past several thousand years made him forget how the_ heck _you're supposed to make bread_ ).

He could still see those dark, angular eyes narrow into rage-filled slits at him. ( _At the murderer in the room._ )

He'd been frozen like an ice statue, eyes wide as Xara seized a nearby blade and started striding towards him deliberately, knuckles standing out sharply against her bony hand ( _how long had it been since she'd slept properly? Eaten properly?_ ), teeth gritting and baring in a snarl filled with utter hatred.

He could still see Jesse abruptly pouncing on Xara's back into a sort of piggyback, the ( _ridiculously short_ ) hero wrapping their arms around Xara in some sort of tackle-hug that made the purple-haired woman stop in her tracks and jerk the sword awkwardly away to avoid accidentally hitting Jesse with it, and if he hadn't been feeling his heart shatter at seeing Xara in this shape, at this stage, looking like she'd been through hell ( _because he put her through it_ ) and the javelin of hatred she'd just thrown at him using only her eyes, he would've laughed.

He could still see Jesse giving him a look to _go you dummy or she's actually going to murder you_ , feel his feet scrambling backwards as if he wasn't controlling it, hand fumbling the doorknob as he stared at Xara. Jerk himself backwards through the door, slam it in his face so that he can't see her anymore.

Can't let her throw pure and utter hatred at him using her dark eyes that were filled with so much intensity.

Can't let her take the memory of watching Fred die, watch one of his best friends die ( _Xara screams, Fred's red eyes wide as he stared at Romeo, shock evident in every line of his face, that thin line of blood that appeared at the corner of his mouth, because he was an Admin, normal weapons didn't hurt him, but this wasn't a normal weapon, Romeo had summoned this out of thin air, paranoia and darkness and fear solidifying into a blade because_ he doesn't want them to go _, he hadn't expected it to actually_ do _anything_ ) and throw it in his face as if he really meant to kill Fred.

As if he'd planned to do it.

Romeo's breathing is practically nonexistent, the shallow panting that he'd adopted to try to calm himself down turning into a sort of horrible contraction of his lungs, where they begin to inhale before exhaling, pushing all the air out of his lungs, he _can't breathe_ –

The sound of the fridge door opening finally hits him. His eyes flick up to see Jesse's green eyes blinking at him in surprise, behind the cheese and miserable excuse of the contents of a fridge that Jesse has.

"Romeo?"

Romeo wants to tell Jesse to go away. In fact, he gets so far as to open his mouth, but nothing comes out except for his strangled excuse for breathing.

"What are you doing in the–" Jesse pauses, thinking over what they're saying, before apparently deciding not to finish the thought. "Never mind. Aren't you cold?"

Another wheezing excuse of breathing.

Jesse stares at him blankly for a moment, before their expression shifts into something else.

It might be pity.

Romeo doesn't know what's worse– seeing hatred in Xara's eyes, in the eyes of everyone he meets, even though it's concealed (except for Jesse, for some reason, he's not very good at reading their eyes), or seeing the pity on Jesse's face right now.

"… okay." Jesse carefully shifts aside the cheese and takes ahold of Romeo's forearm, giving it a tug. Gentle, at first, as if testing to make sure it was firmly attached to his body, before more firmly, guiding his stiff, aching body out of the fridge.

Romeo doesn't try to stay in Jesse's fridge. He _could_ , if he wanted, but he doesn't really have the right to stay in their fridge, mainly because it's not _his_ refrigerator.

When Romeo's finally standing, Jesse shuts the fridge door, making the kitchen descend into darkness except for the torch that they've set on the table to illuminate their surroundings.

He expects them to shoo him off to bed, because at this point he's pretty sure they saw the dark circles under his eyes from the way he's been forcing himself to stay awake until he _absolutely cannot_ go without sleep anymore.

He does not expect for them to awkwardly reach up and take him by the shoulders.

"Romeo, you remember how to breathe, right?"

A vague nod. At least, Romeo hopes that was a nod. His lungs are still doing a poor imitation of human breathing.

"Okay." Jesse's voice is calm and steady, compared to Romeo trying so hard to breathe that he's actually failing. "Try picturing a feather. Close your eyes if that helps."

Romeo closes his eyes to try to picture it–

 _Red eyes, blood, shock and disbelief as he stares at his best friend–_

His eyes snap back open, lungs now barely even trying to imitate breathing, but he tries to do what Jesse asks, pictures a feather.

"Now, imagine your breathing controls the feather. Exhale makes the feather go up, inhale makes the feather go down."

Jesse keeps quietly coaching him through the breathing exercise (which Romeo still doesn't quite understand), but by the time the torch has burnt halfway down, Romeo's lungs have recalled what it means to properly inhale and exhale.

"Better?" Jesse's tone is coaxing, almost as if they're trying to help a child.

"Ye–" Romeo clears his throat. His voice just cracked, as if he was an awkward teenager in puberty. "Yeah."

Jesse gives him a friendly grin, teeth showing slightly in a non-threatening way. ( _Fred used to smile like that._ )

"That's good. Want some hot chocolate?"

The former Admin stares at Jesse.

Of all the things he expected them to say, that was the last thing he would've thought would come out of their mouth.

"What?"

"Hot chocolate." A look of joking horror crosses Jesse's face. "Oh no, you've forgotten so many things during your time as an Admin, did you forget what chocolate was?!"

"No, no, I know what chocolate is. And hot chocolate," Romeo hastily adds. He's not sure what else to say to that.

Jesse immediately relaxes. "Oh. That's good. Do you want some, then?"

Romeo stares at them some more.

"Do I have something on my face?" Jesse pokes their face slightly, a frown crossing their features. Romeo puts his hands in the air in a sort of vague surrender.

"N-no…" He pauses. "Hot chocolate would… be fine."

Jesse nods and goes to grab a metal kettle and the ingredients necessary to make said beverage. "Cool. Feel free to sit at the table."

Still feeling totally confused, Romeo lowers himself into one of the wooden chairs at the table (the chair grinds on the floor a little and makes him wince), watching as Jesse begins to work on the hot chocolate.

"I'm not, like, the greatest chef ever, but even I can make hot chocolate," they inform him over their shoulder as they work at the stove for a moment.

Romeo gives a vague nod, but that seems to satisfy Jesse, because they continue chattering away cheerfully as they work on the hot chocolate. "I mean, I _could_ make you some tea, or some coffee, but drinking coffee at–"

They check the clock.

"One in the morning is a recipe for never going to sleep ever. Radar used to do it, but then I told him he needed to stop. He still drinks an obscene amount of coffee but at least it's at, like, 7 AM now. And I don't have any tea bags or tea leaves; I meant to go shopping for them… hm, two weeks ago? Whatever– but…"

At this point, Romeo glances at the stove. While Jesse is moving at a speed that shows they're clearly comfortable with cooking, the counter around the stove seems to have the thinnest coating of dust on it.

For that matter, so does the kitchen table, the chair that Romeo's sitting on, even most of the chairs in the kitchen have a thin layer of dust settled over it.

Romeo knows that Jesse is busy– one glance at Radar's schedule can confirm that– but do they ever sit down in their own kitchen to _eat?_ Or do they just… eat as they go?

Heck, do they ever even _use_ their kitchen?

Hm.

"Jesse?" he asks at last, looking up from the dusty bit of the kitchen table that he's been staring at for the past minute or so at the short person currently making hot chocolate, accidentally interrupting them.

"Hm?"

Romeo wants to ask about how much they use their kitchen, but his mouth takes over and asks a different question, one that he's also curious about but one that he wasn't planning on voicing aloud.

"Why are you being so nice to me?"

The question hangs in the air. The only sound left in the kitchen was Jesse's movements as they continued to make the hot chocolate.

Honestly, for the past month or so Romeo's been wondering. Petra gave him the widest berth possible, he hadn't even _looked_ at Jack since the whole fiasco, Radar squeaks and acts like a startled rabbit, and Xara, well, Xara tried to kill him, but Jesse's just been acting as nice as they would if he was a good friend.

Not even a good friend with Jesse's personality; if he was a total stranger.

Not an enemy.

Not someone who tried to kill them, multiple times.

Not someone who imitated them, pretended to be them, basically stole their identity.

Not someone who hurt them.

At first, Romeo was sure that it was just because Jesse pitied him. _Pities_ him. The way they regard him sometimes… it's definitely a reason.

But then, they pitied _Hadrian_ , just a tiny bit. They didn't treat him that nicely. In fact, he was probably one of the only people Jesse acted even like they _mildly_ disliked him.

So then he thought it was just Jesse being Jesse. They had a very friendly personality. Surely that was it.

But then again, they didn't get along with Stella too well before the whole fiasco. They were just sort of… neutral towards the leader of Champion City.

So then why?

Jesse finally finishes with the hot chocolate after a moment, turning around with two mugs. They slide one to Romeo and plop down in the kitchen chair across from him, hot chocolate slopping around in the cup as if it's about to spill out.

Thankfully, it doesn't, but still.

The short person considers Romeo for a moment, fingers cradling the cup of hot chocolate thoughtfully.

"Because you're trying."

Romeo blinks at the answer. "Sorry?"

"You're trying to make up for what you're doing. You're _trying_ to apologize, even when people look at you like… you're scum. Even when Xara attempts to kill you every time you two get within a fifty-foot radius. You're trying to apologize and make up for what you did."

Jesse sips at the cup, glancing up at Romeo. "You're making a huge effort to fix what you did."

The former Admin stares at Jesse in total disbelief, as if they just declared that a unicorn was about to come in and start tap-dancing on the table wearing a sombrero and a tutu. Heck, he would've believed _that_ more than what he'd just heard.

"I… you're joking, right?" he manages, through a low, disbelieving chuckle. "I'm _trying_ to apologize, so you just forgive me? Just like that? Jesse, that's not a safe way of going around life. I _killed_ somebody."

"So did Cassie Rose," Jesse promptly shoots back.

" _She_ didn't stab her best friend," Romeo instantly snaps back, making Jesse blink at the way the red-haired guy across the table from her went from disbelieving to furious so quickly. " _She_ didn't summon a weapon and _stab her best friend_ because she was paranoid and afraid that they would leave. _She_ didn't watch him die, choking on his own blood, knowing full _damn well_ that she could've saved him and yet doing _nothing_. _She_ didn't _wipe his blood off of her face."_

Jesse simply watches, blinking in slight surprise as Romeo's hands tighten into fists, so tight that he can feel his nails cutting into his bare skin slightly. "I've _killed_ people. I've _locked them in an underground prison to starve._ I've _locked people_ – people from _your_ town– up because they displeased me," he nearly snarls at Jesse, because it's so much easier for him to pretend he's not terrified about seeing Fred every time his eyes close, every time he closes his eyes for longer than a second when he's angry.

"I've held your town hostage, I've _locked away an entire world to eternal darkness_ , I nearly did that to _your_ world, I KILLED MY BEST FRIEND, I LOCKED THE OTHER ONE IN A PRISON TO GO INSANE FROM INSOMNIA, AND I PRETENDED TO BE YOU!"

Romeo isn't aware he's started screaming until Jesse starts back a bit. A deep flicker of fear flickers over their face– just for a second– before it goes back to just an unsettled one.

"I TRIED TO KILL YOU, I KILLED MY _BEST FRIEND_ , I THREATENED EVERYONE YOU CARE ABOUT, AND YOU THINK IT'S OKAY TO FORGIVE ME BECAUSE I'M _TRYING TO APOLOGIZE?!"_

 _"_ I didn't say that."

Romeo catches himself before he can continue screaming at Jesse, letting out a slightly insane-sounding laugh because _wow_ does Jesse sound calm right now. "Oh, really? Then what _were_ you trying to say exactly? 'Cause it sure sounds like it."

Jesse winces at the sarcasm dripping off of his tongue, but they don't respond immediately.

After a moment, they lift their hot chocolate to their mouth and sip it, green eyes glazing over for a moment as they seem to weigh their words. When they set the cup down, they meet Romeo's eyes.

"You're right. You're not exactly what I would call a nice person. Or… even a sane one, really."

Romeo accepts that barb. He deserves it.

"And I should probably hate your guts." Jesse pauses, meets his eyes.

"But I can't."

Romeo blinks at that.

"I don't hate you for… all the stuff you did. Yeah, you did it to hurt me. But everyone does something to hurt someone else at some point in their lives. Whether it's an accident or not doesn't matter. It happens." Jesse shrugs. "The best thing to do is just try to make up for it. Try to fix it if you can."

"You can't just _undo_ killing someone, Jesse," Romeo says bitterly. "Trust me, I would've if I could've. You can't bring back someone who's dead."

"Of course you can't _undo_ it, I know that. That's not something you can fix. But you _can_ apologize. And you've been doing your damndest to do that." Jesse shrugs again. "I think you're sincere. And I want you to keep being like… this."

They pause. "Okay, not like, hiding in the back of my fridge and having a panic attack."

The former Admin can't help but let out a tired huff of laughter at that.

"But…" Jesse trails off for a moment, thoughts swirling around in their eyes, before their lips solidify into a thin line. "Before, you were arrogant, rude, mentally unstable to the point where I would've called it insanity, childish, and controlling."

He deserves that barb, too.

"Now, though… you're almost kind sometimes. You try to be helpful. You're a little shy and awkward. You're still a little childish, but hey, that's cool. You can be a little bossy sometimes, but that's okay too. You're still not the _sanest_ of people, but then again, half of everybody I know is kinda cuckoo, so." Jesse chuckles at the expression on Romeo's face.

"In all seriousness, though… you're hurt. Not physically," the short hero has to quickly butt in as Romeo glances down at himself automatically, "but… you're a little messed up in the head. And I can honestly see why. I mean, you killed your best friend– I don't know if it was an accident, or on purpose– but you clearly felt guilty about it afterwards.

"You just wanted you and your friends to stay together. You just wanted to be with them. Maybe you just cared about them a lot. Maybe you didn't want to be alone," Jesse continues.

( _It had been both._ )

"But then it happened, and… you ended up by yourself. You ended up losing both. You ended up having to deal with being crushed by your guilt of having one of your best friends dead and knowing that it was your fault."

The former Admin wants to protest that, but he can't.

It's true.

"And, well… dealing with all of _that_ over the course of who-knows-how-long is going to cause _something_ to snap eventually." Jesse gives him a tired smile, one that seems almost a little pitying. "You basically just started breaking yourself."

Romeo opens his mouth to protest _that_.

But he doesn't.

It's hard to protest something when nothing comes out.

"I can't hate you. Even if I _could_ get angry at you, it's not like you can help it when your mind starts to break. It's not like a vase, because you can glue a vase back together and you can figure that out. It's not like a heart, because time eventually heals that. But when your mind starts breaking, you don't know how to fix it, and the longer you leave it, the worse it gets."

Jesse finishes their cup of hot chocolate, setting it to the side. "If you really _did_ have something break, Romeo, I want to help you fix it before it's too late to start." They let out a low, hollow chuckle. "Past experience has taught me that hating someone who breaks something, and then tries to fix it and apologize, is counterproductive."

Standing up, they deposit their cup in the sink, giving their head a little shake and then a bit of a laugh. "Sorry, that's just my two cents. Feel free to take it with a grain of salt if you'd like. I start waxing philosophical whenever I'm low on sleep."

Romeo stays seated, staring at Jesse as they walk towards the kitchen door. It seems they now intend to go to bed.

"You want to waste your time on… what, _fixing_ me? I don't know if you've noticed, Jesse, but I'm really screwed up." He gives them a dry smile, trying not to show the fact that he feels glad.

He feels glad that they care enough to try to fix him.

Maybe if he hadn't been so focused on having a friend that was worthy, of one that agreed with him all the time, he and Jesse could've been good friends.

"Romeo, time is valuable. If I thought there wasn't a chance that you'd change, I wouldn't be talking to you right now." Jesse pauses at the door, one hand resting on the doorframe as they think.

They glance over their shoulder, giving him a slightly cheeky grin and wink. "Besides, I know lots of other people who are more screwed up than you could ever imagine."

And then they're gone before he can ask them to elaborate, leaving him with a mug of cooling hot chocolate to finish, the knowledge of how to have his lungs breathe properly, questions about Jesse that went unanswered, and this weird fuzzy feeling that he suspected was hope.


	4. Wolf in the Sunshine Institute

"The dog walks up to Brick. He proceeds to shower it with love and affection for the next two minutes."

The narrating Brick proceeds to kneel down and start petting the wolf and making little cooing noises that don't seem to have to do with narrating.

(So he _does_ break the habit. For very cute things, apparently.)

The wolf makes a very pleasant growling sound that may be the dog's version of a purr.

* * *

Terry might act tough a lot of the time. If you don't act tough in the Sunshine Institute, it chews you up and spits you out.

But I'd like to see _you_ act tough when this little gray fluffball practically _bounces_ over and then plops down in front of you because would you just _look at it_?!

Currently, he's sitting and gently asking the dog who's a good girl. (Or boy. He actually can't really tell.)

Even tough guys can play with puppies because _lookit_.

* * *

"No, you can't have a cookie."

This dog ( _how in the name of heaven did a dog get_ in _here?_ ) does not stop giving Anthony puppy-dog eyes, simply panting and smiling(?) up at him.

"Listen, this has chocolate in it. Chocolate is _not good for animals_. You can't have it."

Still panting.

"This is for your own good."

Still giving him puppy-dog eyes.

"… but you can get a pat on the head."

The puppy bounces.

Associates are probably not supposed to melt at the sight of a happy dog but _oh my goodness look at this thing._

* * *

"You're a very still dog."

The dog just pants, the tail practically vibrating as it tries to keep still, Rob painting its portrait.

(He can't actually _paint_ anything, but he's memorized the colors, strokes, and pose already just by using the brush to at least imitate it. If he ever gets out of here…)

"You'd make a good model."

The dog gives a soft _woof_.

* * *

Oxblood is usually rather against letting anything in with Geoff. After all, selling wheat to associates is one thing, but having an actual freaking mooshroom? HUGE breach of the rules.

But a quiet little puppy that's done nothing but bounce quietly and pant is probably safe.

"Don't bark," he growls at the dog in slight warning.

The dog growls playfully in return, but doesn't bark. It just pokes Geoff's leg with a tiny purr-like sound.

Geoff moos and butts his head against the little dog.

Okay, definitely safe.

* * *

Carmine usually just has all the rotten flesh he wants all to himself. The others eat it out of necessity, but he actually _loves_ the taste, the sharp flavor, the weird texture.

He's found someone else who shares his love for the stuff.

Or, well, some _thing_ else, but a dog isn't a thing, now is it?

"Ya like this too, huh?" He pokes the piece of rotten flesh that's in one hand, before holding it out to the dog. "This one's a bit squishier than the other ones; that probably means it's fresh."

The puppy yips and chomps down on it, being careful not to bite his hand by accident.

"You're pretty smart, for a dog." Carmine grins, teeth crooked. "This is first-rate rotten flesh.

* * *

The dog is sitting on Xara's lap.

She'd knock it off if she could, but her straitjacket is on and _damn_ she can't exactly flail around and throw it against the wall because this thing is too cute for it's own good.

"How on earth did you even get in here?" she asks– or at least, she tries. The mask smothering her mouth makes it come out in incoherent muffles.

The puppy yips cheerfully, giving her face a happy lick. Prisoner X grimaces at the slobber on her face. That's why she's usually a cat person– they don't exactly leave slobber all over you. Yes, they _lick_ you, but they don't leave dog drool everywhere.

"You're disgusting," she tells the dog through the gag.

It rolls over and rubs her leg with its head, wiggling around to achieve this.

"… also very cute."

 _Damn it._

* * *

"Kill it."

The associate pauses mid-word, the puppy in his arms panting away cheerfully. "Uh, sorry, sir?"

"Kill it. It's a nuisance and upsets the balance of the Sunshine Institute. I don't even know how it got _in_ here. I won't have it in here."

"Uh, yes, Warden, s–" The puppy, deciding that now is the perfect time to squirm, leaps out of the associate's arms and bounds over to the Warden.

The pale man gives a surprisingly high-pitched yelp as he practically leaps out of his seat, scrambling backwards to avoid it. "Stay-stay back!" he yells at the dog, who either ignores his tone or just doesn't notice it and keeps bouncing towards him.

"Uhh… Warden, sir?"

The Warden seems to realize that the associate is still in the room and straightens back up, hands automatically going behind his back. "Er… I'll handle it. You are dismissed."

"Yes, sir." The door slides shut as the associate backs out of the room, a perplexed expression in his eyes.

The dog yaps happily and bumps into the Warden's leg.

"NooooOOOO go away!" He springs away, the prison golem at the door watching detachedly as he starts essentially sprinting back and forth to avoid the bouncing, happy puppy.

"Leave me– I don't like dogs– Large Henry, get rid of it!"

The prison golem proceeds to start trying to recapture the dog, but this little fluffy gray thing basically starts showing off how fast it is– it'll just bounce out of reach before the prison golem can catch it. It thinks this is a game, too, because its tail is wagging cheerfully.

The Warden slaps a hand against his forehead, looking as if he's going through a lot of pain and suffering. "Are you _kidding me_ – for the love of Notch." He waits until the dog is near enough to touch, before lunging forward and scooping up the puppy with a little sound that might be a whimper.

The fluffy puppy stops trying to bounce around and just stays there, panting happily.

The Warden offers the puppy to the prison golem, being careful to keep the thing as far away from his body as humanly possible. "Here, just– take it and throw it in some lava or something."

The prison golem moves to take it.

The puppy squirms in the Warden's hands, making him yelp and drop it.

It practically bounces when it hits the ground, giving a cheerful yip before beginning to bounce around the office again.

The Warden calmly begins backing towards the exit. "I-I'm just going to… go check on… the prison– guests. The guests. You just… catch the thing and throw it out." The door slowly opens, the Warden continuing to back away.

The puppy bounds out of reach of the prison golem and leaps through the open doorway before the Warden can order the golem to close it.

The Warden can scream at a _really_ high pitch, apparently.


	5. Becoming an Admin

Binta could never get a straight answer from Fred about how he became an Admin.

He'd once let it slip that he, Romeo, and Xara had not originally been Admins in a moment where the conversation had been happy, filled with laughter and teasing and jokes that most of the citizens of Fred's Keep would've never _dared_ to use with Fred because how could Binta be so _casual_ around him and yet be so shy around them?

When she'd asked, his smile had faded. Red eyes gleamed in the sunlight as the third Admin regarded his friend, his charge, his 'second in command' in town with a thoughtful look.

The sort of look you give someone when you're trying to decide if they can keep your secret.

But despite Binta being the quietest person of all time around everyone except Fred, the only one who he brings to his meetings with Xara and Romeo that are planned at the last minute because Romeo's been _begging_ for two weeks and Xara finally had half an hour to herself and you can't pass up _that_ opportunity, want to come with, Binta…

A pleasant smile returned to his face.

"How do you like the weather today?"

* * *

Binta, in order to be polite, said that she liked it very much, but she wished that they'd have less thunderstorms.

Fred just laughed at that and told her she'd need to talk to Romeo about that, steering the conversation away from that one topic.

From then on, there was always one small barrier in every conversation they had. No matter what Binta asked, no matter how subtly or obviously, no matter how gently she tried to breach the topic again, he'd always steer the topic away from it. Gently, but firmly– like one would turn a small child away from something fragile.

She didn't like it.

Before, their conversations had been open, easy. It was so much easier to talk to him than some of the other people who lived in Fred's Keep. It wasn't like they were mean, because they weren't. They were lovely and kind and gentle people, but Binta just _could not talk to people properly_.

But now there was one small secret, one walled-off area that Fred was polite about, kind enough about, but very firm about keeping it hidden away.

Binta had always wondered. But she'd respected Fred's privacy, let him keep his secrets. Because he respected hers ( _not that she had any secrets_ ), he let her in on everything else.

Just not that one thing.

She knew everything else about him. That he liked birch, which she found out only _days_ before he ( _don't say died, Binta, that's the d-word, you don't say that word_ ), the way his lips would twitch slightly if he didn't like someone very much or he was highly amused by someone.

Just not _that one thing._

Now, she guessed she'd never know.

* * *

The Warden had never gotten a good answer from either the Admin or Prisoner X about their pre-Admin status.

The topic had been accidentally popped in one day. The Admin had burst into the room, bringing the usual sparks that sprayed everywhere when he appeared in a room like that (the Warden had learned to slide any important papers towards himself to avoid them catching on fire whenever this happened), ranting and raging and yelling about something.

(The Warden couldn't remember _what_ it was about, the Admin used to appear so often before he'd started working more intently on 'the second world'.)

In a moment of rage and shouting that was incomprehensible to the Warden because of how _livid_ the Admin was, he caught the phrase " _before we were Admins_."

This caught his attention. He knew that Prisoner X and the Admin were acquainted with one another. But they'd _both_ been Admins? Actually, scratch that, they'd both been _human before being Admins?_

 _"_ Sir?"

The Admin kept ranting. The Warden kept his mouth shut. He didn't like tempting fate, and trying to ask a question, as burning as his curiosity was, with the Admin this angry would probably end up with…

Well, the consequences were never made clear, but suffice to say it would probably not be good.

After the Admin had disappeared, he'd gone down to talk to Prisoner X. He'd used to do that so much more often back then, when Prisoner X was one of the only prisoners in the whole of the Sunshine Institute.

She'd refused to give him an answer, which was really to be expected. But the look in her eyes was enough to give him part of the answer he wanted, enough to quench the blazing thirst for knowledge deep inside of him just a bit.

The two of them _had_ been former Admins.

But before that, they'd been human.

Normal.

He'd never found out anything beyond that.

The last thought he ever has isn't about the blood that's soaking the orange uniform that he hadn't worn for decades (centuries?), the cold, sharp tip of the arrow punching through skin and muscle and bone into something deeper, something that skips a beat or two, the way he suddenly is going numb.

The last thought he ever has, seconds before he dies, is that he's never going to know the answer to his question, and _damn_ that's annoying, he's dying before he figures this out.

The Warden had always liked a good puzzle or riddle.

He just doesn't like unsolved ones.

There are some rumors that if you sit in his old office, really sit still and listen and stare at the shattered glass that looked down into the Mush Room, you can see a flicker of gold where his eye was. Pale blue and gold with a dead, black lens.

You can pose a riddle to him too, if you'd like. It can be a puzzling one, or just a silly one, but you can give him a riddle.

He's solved them.

* * *

Romeo and Xara never quite explain to Jesse what Fred meant by ' _normal_ again'.

They've become curious. They can't help it, because what did Fred _mean_ when he said that the gauntlet had the power to make Romeo normal _again?_ Did that mean the Admins weren't Admins originally?

But no matter how many times Jesse's badgered them about, how many times they asked and asked and _asked_ , they never quite explained. Even when Jesse and Petra stop by Beacontown (and Radar tackles Jesse in a tight hug that nearly chokes them half to death because _man_ he's gotten stronger), and Jesse continually bugs them about, they don't explain.

At least, they haven't explained until now.

Romeo looks almost guilty as he explains that he'd found the ritual by accident in an old book of Fred's, one that he'd pulled out instead of that one by Soren (the _Soren, Soren the Architect, Jesse wants to ask, but they keep their mouth shut because they don't want to get sidetracked after waiting this long to get their question answered_ ), he'd shown it to Xara.

Xara picks up the story from there, claiming that she and Romeo had had a good laugh over the clearly made-up ritual, before showing it to Fred. He'd thought it was interesting, but also complimented how well it had been created, how well crafted the tale was.

Then it was one night when they were all tired and bored and they'd just come back from yet another trip into a mineshaft that had nothing in it except dead, unmoving skeletons ( _skeletons didn't move before the whole Admin thing, thanks Xara, now we know who to blame when we get shot by an arrow in the middle of the night_ ), that Xara sees the ritual and jokes that they should do it.

Out of boredom, the three not-quite-Admins set up the setup, joking about how clumsy Fred is and teasing him not to knock over any of the candles lest he burn the cabin down, and it's a minute to midnight when the ritual is all set up and ready to go.

They perform the chant, do the ritual, and get ready to call it a night when someone appears. Someone with dark skin, dark brown hair, a blue shirt that they recognize ( _they used to see Steve in town all the time, he was really nice_ ), but unfamiliar white eyes that glow.

(The three not-yet-Admins are terrified, but they notice that they don't have irises or pupils. Just the glowing whites of his eyes.)

"Do you want to play a game?" The entity ( _known as Herobrine, apparently_ ) asks them. According to Xara, he never really _spoke_ – they just knew what he was trying to say.

Romeo, Xara, and Fred take a moment to deliberate. The price for losing will be steep, but the reward for winning… well, Herobrine doesn't exactly say what the prize will be, but from what he's saying it sounds like he'll grant them a wish.

On a whole whim, a stupid, joking whim, Romeo says yes.

They play the game.

( _At this point, Xara stops talking and clams up. Jesse turns to Romeo, but he's equally tight-lipped. Jesse never figures out exactly what this game that they played is, but they get the feeling it is one that they never want to play._ )

They won.

Apparently, 'Herobrine' _did_ give them the prize of granting a wish.

He just gave them the power to grant that wish themselves.

* * *

Jesse's down in Fred's house, looking through his many books. He had some _really_ nice books. They haven't realized how much they missed reading until they've been able to curl up in a corner and read a good book.

Petra's off talking to Val and Soup and trying to track down the scavengers. They're hoping they can get them up to the surface, or at least to someplace that's more hospitable for human beings to live.

So Jesse is alone.

They move to pull a book off the shelf.

Except it doesn't come, and the shelf clicks aside to reveal a large, fat, leather-bound book that's buried under the shelf. The pages are old, they smell like dust, but otherwise it's in perfect shape.

Jesse carefully tugs it out, flipping open the pages. It seems to be a book documenting ghosts. Entities. Beings that can't be explained.

They think it's cute. Funny, almost. Some of these stories are so fantastic that Jesse can't help but roll their eyes.

And then they flip to a page that's been dog-eared by someone (probably Fred, Jesse's noticed he has that habit through the many books that they've read).

One detailing a ritual.

Jesse's eyes are immediately magnetized to it. They read the whole thing. It seems easy enough to set up, easy enough to perform.

The price is unmentionable. But the prize is great.

Do they risk it?

Well.

That's up to you, my friend.


	6. Ventilation Shaft

Romeo doesn't know why he doesn't just block off the Underneath altogether.

Seal it up, block it off, let everyone and everything down there just _rot_ for the rest of time, but for some reason he can't think of it.

Can't bear to think of how blocking off the first world he built, with his two best friends with one now _dead_ ( _because of him_ ) and the other one locked away far from where he'll ever be able to talk to them ever again with no possible way of receiving fresh air and letting them all suffocate until there's nothing left alive, everything left in pure darkness.

So he doesn't.

He doesn't block it off.

He leaves one small ventilation shaft– extraordinarily dangerous, fraught with peril (is that a _Notch-damned spider nest,_ Xara would scream at Romeo as she bolted if she were here because she HATES spiders), and nuisances (Fred would be almost amused at how carefully you'd have to edge around the zombie pigmen that he accidentally created to avoid accidentally stepping on one and causing a rush), and weird deadly traps (that is most certainly a small ocean of Soul Sand, hold your breath or you might die if you go through it) that he peppers with various creations of his own (that felcanider he once created because he wanted something fluffy but weird at the same time seems to be really happy in there.)

But he leaves one small, dangerous, last path up to the surface of the new world he's creating, right over the new one.

(He could just delete the old one but he can't seem to think about it for some reason. He can just see Fred's disappointed face.)

He's faintly impressed by how Soren somehow manages to make it from the heart of the Underneath to sunlight and clean fresh air (though he doesn't feel like showing himself that day and as he learns more about Soren, he becomes so uninclined to do it that he just drops the matter altogether).

He knows that Ivor will probably see through his facade if he stays around them too much because Jesse's practically one of his _kids_ , Ivor's one of the sharpest (if not slightly insane) people Romeo's watched, there's no way he'd not notice that something was _wrong_ with his _kid_ , so he sends the ninja into the Underneath, sends him to go kill the original and then there's no doubt about it.

Sends him through that one last ventilation shaft so that maybe, just _maybe_ , Ivor won't ever find out.

(He ignores the slight gnawing of guilt that tells him that Ivor would be completely and totally crushed if he found out that he killed Jesse by accident, and possibly literally crushed if he goes through the ventilation shaft.)

But otherwise, Romeo ignores the ventilation shaft.


	7. Cooking Lessons

Stella had never been good at cooking.

She's not going to admit that within twelve miles earshot of Jesse, of course, since Jesse can whip up the simplest food without even paying full attention to the food and have it turn out really yummy, but she's always had this bad habit of burning everything to a crisp.

It's not because of her furnace. She'd gone through three before deciding it wasn't the furnace's fault; every time she attempted cooking ANYTHING in the furnace it ended up burnt to a crisp.

It's not because of improvisation. Stella had a few cookbooks, and she'd once followed the directions EXACTLY to the last period on the page. What she'd pulled out was a set of very much burned food items,

It's not even because she's not paying attention. Once, she literally watched a pot of water boil very carefully for an hour before it randomly erupted into flames. (She'd been trying to boil carrots, for those of you who might be curious.)

Another time she'd literally watched something in the furnace with such carefulness that it was a little unnerving, and when she'd pulled it out it had been burnt to a crisp.

Stella had since stopped cooking food.

Until the Admin Romeo comes along.

When Stella noticed that he'd gotten to the point where his body was getting to the thinness of a thick stick, she put her foot down.

Yes, she hated the guy. Yes, she was pissed at him for destroying her city. Yes, she wouldn't have let the guy in her house unless she wanted to destroy something.

But no, she wasn't trying to kill the guy.

Well, not through starvation, anyway.

"You know, I can't cook for you every day. Not unless you want to consistently be eating burned food." Stella pulls out a pan of (burnt) muffins and tossed it onto the counter with a little more force than necessary, inspecting the charred things. She knew she was doing everything right, she triple-checked everything, so why were these stupid things burnt?

Romeo snagged one of the earlier attempts at burned muffins, shrugging. "Well, I can't cook at all. So burned is better than nothing." He put the whole thing in his mouth and then crunched down, grinding on the muffin which at this point wasn't much more than burned ingredients solidified into a tiny rock of a muffin.

Stella froze part of the way of shutting the furnace door again, gears in her head turning.

She actually knew what she was doing but just couldn't get anything to turn out right, right?

And she actually had a decent furnace, right?

And there was nothing saying that Romeo couldn't learn to cook himself, right?

"Okay, I'm teaching you how to cook."

Romeo swallows in his surprise, coughs, and then spends the next ten minutes trying to hack out the tiny lump of burned muffin embedded in the back of his throat while Stella tries to keep him from choking to death on that muffin.

Stella finds a very simple recipe for baked potatoes. VERY simple. It's something even a total novice couldn't mess up.

She's DEFINITELY not touching any of the ingredients or the furnace, though– it's all going to be Romeo except for her talking.

"Okay, here are the potatoes." She sets the bag on the counter, opens it, and lets Romeo poke through the potatoes.

He gets rather quiet when he does, staring down into the bag, but doesn't say anything and simply sets the potatoes on the counter. One nearly rolls into the trash can before Stella rescues it.

"Okay, now you have to wash the potatoes." Stella points at the cauldron that she filled with water.

It's almost funny to see Romeo staring at the potatoes, at a complete loss. She finally takes pity on him, puts them in the water, and then tells him to just rub the dirt off of them before drying them.

He does that. So far so good.

"You done with that?"

A quiet nod. This is so extremely different from the previous Romeo, who would sneer at Stella and ignore the fact that she looked more and more tired and just tell her to 'go do her job'.

"Alright, so now you have to poke some holes in them so they don't explode."

Romeo's eyes widen to the size of saucers. "Potatoes can explode?!"

"Yeah, the holes keep them from exploding. I'm not sure why. They just do." Stella says this absentmindedly, having learned this lesson the hard way a few years ago. This was the one time her bad cooking skills could be blamed on her– she hadn't read the instructions properly.

That was the incident in which she started triple-reading the instructions after receiving them.

(Stella has to rescue a few potatoes from being stabbed so frantically that they fall apart altogether. However, a few potatoes sacrifice their existences as a solid potato to the worthy cause of teaching Romeo how to cook.)

After Romeo finishes poking the holes in the potatoes (read: stabbing them in a panic so that they wouldn't blow up in his face), Stella told him, "Okay, now you can just stick them in the furnace."

Romeo does this very carefully, setting some coal in underneath before placing the potatoes in, shutting the door, and then lighting the furnace. He looks almost terrified that the furnace is just going to explode in his face.

"Alright, now we just w–"

A popping sound, and then a shocking BANG that makes Romeo flinch away from the furnace straight into the wall. Several more banging sounds as the furnace literally trembles from the vibrations.

Long story short, Romeo might just be worse at cooking than Stella is. At least Stella doesn't make things explode when she cooks.

* * *

 **I should probably mention, all of these are based off of headcanons that people request. The smoking one was the only independent fic on Tumblr I've written so far.**


	8. Fixing the Underneath

" _ARGH!_ " Xara practically let out a scream in frustration, throwing her hands into the air and almost throwing the wrench. "Notch _damnit_ why can't I _f*cking get this right_?!"

She usually wouldn't have freaked out like that– at most, maybe muttered a swear under her breath before trying again– but having Romeo somewhere in the vicinity had torn her patience levels down to Underneath-level.

Porkchop had been very pleased when they dumped a tied-up and gagged Romeo on the ground in front of Xara, trying to talk through the gag but failing miserably.

They seemed to be even more pleased because Romeo didn't seem to be an Admin anymore.

Normal, overly pale skin ( _probably because he was terrified that Xara was about to murder him, if his wide eyes were any indication_ ), gold eyes with only the irises colored and the whites actually being white, normal t-shirt and jeans and sneakers that were a little muddy.

Five responses flashed through Xara's head in the time that it took for her to blink slowly at Romeo, ranging from killing him on the spot to tackling him in a tight hug because holy crap it was Romeo, it wasn't the Admin anymore, it was just her old friend.

Her old friend who killed her other old friend.

Finally, she simply stepped forward and ripped the gag off with such force that she wouldn't have been entirely surprised if she'd ripped his tongue off along with it. "What are you doing here?"

Romeo didn't flinch at her tone, which was so sharp you could've used it to cut someone's head off, although she did see him wince. "I, uh… I came back. To fix things. Down here."

After a short, awkward (on Romeo's part) explanation about how, in short, Jesse had taken his powers away, and he'd decided to come back to the Underneath to help everyone out if they needed it, he finished on saying, surprisingly meekly, "Well, but, uh, that's if you… are okay with it."

 _F*ck no, I'm not okay with it. You killed my best friend._

Xara thought about vocalizing that, but in the end just let out a growl in his direction. "Don't come within twenty feet of me. I don't want to ever speak to you again."

This time Romeo did flinch a little, but she didn't care as she stalked away, his mouth opening silently as he tried to say something to her retreating back.

She didn't care, she didn't care, she didn't care.

Periodically, the scavengers would stop by to give Xara random updates. Mostly letting her know if they'd discovered anything interesting (the guy in the Enderman head brightly told her that the giant Enderman had stopped showing up) or if anyone had fallen down there (no).

Rarely, they'd include a bit about Romeo, although they tended to ask before telling her in case she didn't want to hear.

Porkchop had stopped wanting to dismember him on sight and had actually started up a small trading system with the guy. Val, Soup, and Llucy were helping Romeo figure out how to gather certain materials to build… something. (Porkchop hadn't gotten details.) He'd helped them when the guy in the creeper head (Xara was sort of crap with names and couldn't remember it for the life of her) had hurt his leg.

The first few times, Xara had waved it off. It's just his way of trying to apologize. He's hoping I'll hear. He's just trying to fix it and once we get comfortable he'll just revert to being a total ass.

The next few times, she didn't wave it off. She'd silently listen as these little things (and sometimes big things) would build up. Val no longer sent him the evil eye whenever he got too close to Llucy. He'd periodically come back with some wood or some materials that someone needed. He'd started working on the extra mobs that weren't supposed to be in the world.

After that, Porkchop and the scavengers stopped asking if she wanted to hear. She stopped cutting them off if they started telling her.

The reports of Romeo being a nice person, not stopping being a nice person but on the contrary getting nicer at times, were starting to confuse her. And when Xara got confused, she just got pissy.

Trying to fix the Oasis was a good distraction. At least she could slam a hammer into something and claim that she was trying to fix it.

Except she'd been stuck on getting this one building right, because the logistics of this one involved too much redstone, and when she placed blocks sometimes the actual machine would screw it up or get stuck, and she had been working solidly on this for three weeks.

It had been a very long time since she'd actually done any redstone or building– about a hundred years, to be precise– and she couldn't remember the logistics properly and she was just so out of patience at this point that she practically threw the wrench. It flew out of sight, probably lost until she went scrounging around in the ruins of her city for it tomorrow.

Or next week, or next month, forget it, she might not ever get this building back to normal at this point.

She can't say she cares that much.

 _The same way you don't care about Romeo seeming to go back to normal?_

She swore loudly, voice echoing through the empty remains of her city.

* * *

Xara was so glad she could actually sleep that whenever she did, she'd just conk out. You could probably blow up a grenade outside her window and she'd just go right on sleeping.

So she's not sure why she can't do it tonight.

Maybe it's stress. After all, she's been working on this one building for what feels like ages. Maybe. But probably not.

Maybe it's anger. She has every right to be angry, really. Romeo did something horrible, and then had the nerve to come back and apologize. As if that would ever fix anything. Too little too late. Maybe. But probably not.

Maybe it's Romeo himself, because his behavior of late has been such a huge contrast to what she's used to that she's confused and irritated, she knows he's somewhere down here but she doesn't know exactly where, she wants to hate his guts because he killed her other best friend and he hasn't apologized.

Maybe it's because you haven't let him try.

Maybe.

For whatever reason, Xara had been trying to sleep for the past three hours, but hadn't been able to get to it. So she just sat up and looked out her window, at the building with the machine that she hadn't been able to get right.

She blinked. Squinted. Looked again.

And then she quickly tossed the blanket aside, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and then walking out of her house, staying to the more shadowy areas as she tried to get a closer look.

When she got within thirty feet, her eyes finally accepted what she was seeing as real and not a hallucination.

There, on the building, is Romeo, frowning bemusedly at it as he raises a finger in the air, waving it around and looking like he's doing a mental math calculation.

Xara watched as Romeo took down a few blocks from the walls she'd set up, before shifting those around, adjusting everything as he went, continually stopping and doing his mental calculations or whatever they were.

He was fixing her building for her.

His hair was messed up and looked like he hadn't combed it in three weeks, his t-shirt was torn badly at the collar and peppered with little burn marks, his jeans looked as if he'd tossed it to a rabid wolf, and his sneakers were scorched, and even in the dim firelight surrounding everything she could see the shadows under his eyes and the unnatural pallor of his skin indicating that he hadn't slept properly for, well, a while at least.

But he was still fixing her building for her.

Slowly, she slipped through the shadows, closer, until she was standing near the bottom of it. Romeo probably would've noticed if he wasn't so intent on repairing her building for her, but he was focused on it that even when he looked up and was staring right at her at one point, he didn't notice her.

The clock that Xara had managed to cobble together one day ticked resolutely onwards. It passed midnight, passed 3 in the morning, and was almost six AM when he finally finished, stepping down and giving a little sigh, barely ten feet from him.

"Romeo."

He flinched in surprise, bonked his head against the wall, and then spun around to face her.

Close up, she realized he looked even worse than when she was watching him try to build this one building that she hadn't gotten for months. There was one long scar from the corner of his eye to his chin that hadn't been there the last time she'd spoken to him, he had a makeshift bandage that looked suspiciously like a part of his shirt wrapped around his head, soaked with almost greenish blood, his eyes were bloodshot and rimmed with red, his lips were chapped and cracked, and he had bruising all down one arm. Not to mention he was a lot thinner than she remembered.

"Oh– uh– hi Xara– I didn't mean– sorry, I'll– I'll leave–" Romeo spluttered, stumbling over his words almost sluggishly, as if he couldn't quite figure out how speaking worked.

Xara interrupted. "Where's this from?" She touched the corner of her eye and then traced down her cheek to her chin to indicate the scar.

Romeo stammered a bit, as if he was about to answer, but then Xara interrupted. "Never mind. When's the last time you slept?"

"Uh…" Romeo's gold eyes blinked slowly, before he glanced down and started counting on his fingers. He got to the the second hand before he looked confused and then started over.

Xara watched him do this three times, looking more and more confused each time, before she sighed. "And this?" she pointed at her head, the area where Romeo had wrapped his bandage.

"Zombie." It seemed to be easier for Romeo to speak in two-syllable words at the moment, because this came out easily, as did the next two-syllable sentence. "Clawed me."

Xara felt her eye twitch in irritation against her will. "Don't tell me you didn't disinfect it."

Romeo's lips barely twitched up at the ends. Blood immediately started leaking from a crack at the corner of his mouth, but he quickly reached up and smeared it away with one hand, the one without bruising along it. "Okay. Then I won't tell you."

Xara had to repress a small smile at that, which surprised her. She hadn't expected to remember how to smile. "And let me guess, you haven't eaten or had anything to drink for at least a day."

"I had some water…" Romeo trailed off, eyes glazing over. He apparently couldn't remember.

Maybe Xara couldn't forgive him yet. And she couldn't forget either.

But she could at least keep her former friend from running himself into the ground.

"Get some sleep. There's a mostly-intact sofa in that house over there." Xara jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "I'll check on you later. I'm going to get back to it."

Romeo opened his mouth to protest, apparently thought better of it, and let out a sigh. It devolved into a cough halfway through, each hack making his shoulders shake violently as he clapped a hand over his mouth. Some more blood leaked out of the corner of his mouth, but this time it seemed to be coming from his mouth.

What the hell had this idiot been doing?! Eating ashes?!

"And you are going to let me check and make sure you're not killing yourself later. I don't care how much you dislike the taste of healing potions," Xara snapped as an afterthought.

When Romeo's coughs finally subsided, he lowered his hand and gave Xara a weak smile, more blood leaking out of his cracked lips. "Still as much of a tough love mom as always, huh." He let out another sigh, this time trying to keep his exhale more shallow, and nodded. "Fine. I'll try to come out and help–"

"No. No helping. You sleep. I don't care if you sleep for three days straight, because right now you look like a pile of crap and your body is probably about to self-destruct."

Xara grabbed him by the shoulders, ignoring the way Romeo's shoulders tensed slightly in surprise, before she spun him around and literally steered him into the house, grabbing a random blanket that she'd put there (sometimes she slept there too. Why do you think she knew about it?) and almost literally throwing it into his face. "I'll be back tonight. And I want you to look like you at least slept for eight hours, got it?"

He let out a dry laugh that ended up sounding more like a smoker's cough. "No promises."

She made a half-joking swipe at his head, which he barely dodged under, before turning and preparing to leave.

She stopped at the threshold of the door, just for a moment. She'd forgotten to say something.

"Thank you."

Before Romeo could say anything (actually, if he had, she would've turned right back around, made him lie down, and force-fed him a narcotic potion if she had to), she was out the door.

She didn't forgive him. Not by a long shot.

But she did at least take a tiny step in that direction, and any progress is good progress.

Notch, if she'd ever said that aloud to Fred he would've started teasing her.


	9. Makeovers and Scars

"Oh my Notch, you are _ridiculous_."

Romeo can't help it- he bursts out laughing right after Jesse says that. "Well, you _are_ the one I suggested I get a makeover."

"I was _joking_ , _you're_ the one who's supposed to get the makeover, and you're the one who picked out a _neon green tube top_ and these _obscenely_ short shorts for me to wear. Where the heck did you even find these?" Jesse picks the tube top and the shorts in question off of the top of the pile, staring at it in amusement.

"I have my ways." Mainly the way of wandering around the store searching for the most embarrassing thing Jesse could possibly wear. The tube top also ends at about the bottom of the rib cage, making sure Jesse would show plenty of skin while wearing it.

Jesse stares at the tube top for a moment, before narrowing their eyes and looking back at Romeo. "If I try this on, you're going to try on a dress."

"Fine by me. I'd look fabulous in a dress."

Jesse lets out a huff of laughter and walks into the changing room, although not before swatting in the general direction of his head.

A minute passes before Jesse pokes their head out of the door, face having turned the approximate redness of a cherry. "This is the most embarrassing thing I've ever done," they mutter.

"You seemed pretty happy to have Lukas wear–"

"DO NOT SAY IT OR I WILL WHACK YOU WITH THIS SHOE." Lukas's voice carried clearly over the shop floor, the blonde's head snapping up from where he was looking at loafers, of all the things. What does he even _need_ with loafers?

"Well, you looked very pretty, Lukas," Petra says, smirk obvious in her voice.

Lukas spins around, still holding the shoe, and begins to make his way over to where Petra is looking at t-shirts. (In the men's section. What, the designs are nice.)

Jesse rolls their eyes. " _I_ wasn't the one making him wear that. Anyway, you'd better keep your promise of wearing the dress once you see me in this thing. I'm already getting chilly."

Romeo nods sagely at that, a wicked grin still managing to sneak its way over his face. "Oh yes. Tell you what, you can pick the dress too."

"Well, that's a deal I can hardly refuse," Jesse replies, just as drily, before sidling out from behind the door.

The moment they do, Romeo's teasing grin fades.

When he'd… been Jesse (they tended to avoid that topic as much as possible), he'd never really changed clothes.

Yes, of course he noticed, up close, all the tiny little scars on Jesse's face, scratches on the bridge of their nose, the way a bit of their right earlobe was missing, the tiny scar going through the corner of their lips, the crooked lines on their arms.

But he'd never really seen Jesse in anything other than a t-shirt, at the least. Never in a tank top, or anything shorter than capris.

So he'd never seen all of their scars.

He'd never seen the twin scars, almost like a crooked pause sign, snaking up to Jesse's collar bone from their chest. Never seen the huge bit of scar tissue over Jesse's stomach that snuck up under the tube top they were wearing.

He hadn't ever seen the burn scars on Jesse's legs, the hundreds of scarred-over cuts on Jesse's knee, their shoulders, their collarbone, their sides, even a few on their thighs.

He hadn't ever noticed the way one of Jesse's arms was a little more crooked than the other.

"Romeo? You okay?" Jesse's dry smile had changed to one of slight concern. Their green eyes rove over his suddenly very pale face, his slightly wider gold eyes. "Do I look that bad in this?"

Their attempt at a joke might as well not even reach Romeo's ears as he stares at the network of scars covering Jesse, probably sneaking under the bit that's being hidden.

"Where…"

Jesse blinks at the way he suddenly blurts out the question with a dry mouth, the question coming out as a slight croak.

He clears his throat and tries again.

"Where did… this…" He doesn't finish the question, reaching up to his collarbone and tracing down to show what he means.

Jesse looks down at themselves, blinking in surprise. As if they completely forgot that they're literally scarred for life. Their face shifts into a more self-conscious one moments later.

That somehow makes it worse.

"Uh, you– you know Mevia, right? Old Buil– uh, you know." Jesse traces down the scar themselves, fingers running over bumpy scar tissue. "She axed me with two axes simultaneously in the Games." They let out an awkward chuckle.

Romeo can't stop staring at all of the scars. He tries to focus on one area and not look at the huge patchwork of scars that is Jesse's body, but that somehow makes it worse. That scar looks darker than that one. That scar is larger than this one. Those scars cross over.

"And… all of the random…" Romeo taps one knee to indicate the scar on Jesse's knee.

"Oh, PAMA smashed me through some glass in it's core or whatever. A few…" Jesse hesitates as they glance back down at themselves, and then correct themselves. "A lot of the smaller bits of glass managed to sneak in through the bits of my armor that would let stuff like that through."

A dry smile tugs at the corner of their mouth. "I had to take off my armor and clean out the glass for two hours."

"Oh."

That's all Romeo's mouth can put out. He stares for a while, before opening his mouth slightly and then tapping the arm that seems to be a little more crooked than the other one.

He can't ask.

Jesse glances down at their crooked arm and gives him a wry grin. "Uh, that was courtesy of the Witherstorm. It _did_ nearly squeeze the life out of me at a few points. Broke a couple of bones, and… I mean, I did ask Ivor to help me heal them and everything, but then they set… well, awkwardly, to say the least."

Jesse lets him stare for a little longer, before grinning at him awkwardly. The amused mood has changed into a more somber one. "Uh, why don't I find a less awkward outfit and find you that dress, huh?"

"I…" Romeo clears his throat. "Actually, I… think this suits you." He glances at the burn scars on their thighs. "Uh, although I think we need to find you something better than extremely short shorts."

Jesse huffs a bit and puts their hands on their hips. "Yo, Romeo, eyes are up here."

The former Admin snorts and looks up at Jesse's face, meeting their eyes. "Why don't you get the tube top, and a… less awkward pair of shorts. I'll buy the dress you pick."

"Are we going to make everyone burn their eyes out this Halloween?" Jesse asks drily.

Romeo smirks, and his voice adopts more of his usual pomp when he speaks again. "On the contrary, we're going to rock everyone's socks off. Just be serious when you pick the dress."

Jesse snickers, the somber mood dissolving a little bit. "Like you were serious when you picked out the tube top?"

"In my defense, it actually looks very good on you. I have innate fashion sense."

Jesse rolls their eyes. "Alright, I'll buy the tube top and some shorts. And then we're going to buy you a dress. I'm betting two iron that we make at least ONE person try to burn their eyes out at Halloween."

"I'm betting that everyone will be jealous, and sure. I could use two iron." Romeo's smirk fades a little as Jesse lets out a laugh and turns back to the changing room. "Er, Jesse."

"Mm?"

Romeo's eyes flick over the 'pause' scar touching Jesse's collarbone before he meets their eyes again. "You don't have to be embarrassed about your scars. They're very…"

 _They show you're brave._

 _They show you're a hero._

 _They tell a story about you._

Several continuations of that flash through Romeo's head in the span of a few blinks, but he doesn't say any of them.

He just gives a small, awkward smile, cupping one elbow with his hand and touching his own collarbone awkwardly. "They're very you."

Jesse looks at Romeo for a long time, still in that neon green tube top.

For a moment, it looks like they're about to say something. Some sort of wall seems to be crumbling behind their eyes.

And then they blink, and the wall is back.

"Thanks, Romeo."

A playful smirk crosses their face. "I'm not buying you a red dress though."

"What, why not."

"Your hair is already red so it'd just look awful. You should just go for black or something complementary to the red."

"As long as you don't buy a green dress."

Even as Romeo manages to fall back into the joking, which is more than he could've asked for considering what he did… he still can't help but wonder what walls Jesse is keeping up.


	10. Auditions

Stella bit her thumb and stared down at the stripes on her suit jacket and the number '73′ in her lap. She would've worn something more casual– like her rather ratty jeans and a t-shirt– but she _was_ here for an audition and she _really_ wanted to make a good impression.

Usually, the hiring process for big game studios like this was a lot more selective– the studio would send out a request to agencies, the agents would send the people who fit their request, and they'd pick from _that_. Very selective, very hardcore, and _definitely_ not for people like Stella, whose drama training consisted of being in every single play her schools had ever hosted, drama classes every year that her school offered it and drama camp over the summers.

Not for people who usually worked from home in their pajamas being a ghost writer, or sometimes heading into an office to replace a secretary.

Stella glanced around the auditorium. The moment the audition for 'Minecraft: Story Mode Season 2′ had gone open, people had flooded to sign up for one of the few audition dates– Stella being one of them. Game acting _was_ different from being in a play, but she'd always loved acting and she'd just been sitting at home eating instant noodles for a month so… why not.

Most of the people there seemed to know each other, chattering away excitedly about the rumor that the main actress playing Female Jesse– her name, amusingly enough, _was_ actually Jesse. Or, well, a variation of it at least, but this Jesse valued her privacy to the point where she actually hadn't given much more information about herself than that– was going to be _at_ this audition.

Stella, of course, was by herself. She was ALWAYS by herself. Unless she was at home, in which case she had Lluna, her llama. She _loved_ Lluna– the llama could be rather obstinate at times, but it was just so much fun to coax Lluna to do anything because it made Stella be creative. This especially helped when she was ghost writing.

The roles that hadn't been filled yet were recurring roles over the course of the entire season– apparently a lot of the smaller or later roles had already been filled up through the agency hiring. One was 'Jack' (the explanation for an actual name being provided was that this adventurer was a 'jack of all trades', which Stella thought was rather clever), the 'Intern', the 'Villain' and the 'Rival'.

Stella had read over the descriptions pretty extensively. Honestly, she'd always loved playing villains, and the personality was something she could fool around with, so she figured she'd try out for the villain and the rival.

The intern was also something to consider, but apparently 'Jack' had to do all of his own stunts and Stella was really _not_ athletic. Thin because of genes, yes, but about as athletic as a paper plate.

After a few more minutes of scanning the auditorium, Stella spotted a young lady sitting in a row by herself as well. Her green eyes were hidden behind a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, and her black hair was tied up in a messy bun. She was wearing a rather nice pale red blouse over a white t-shirt that said something like 'Bye Felicia' and jeans.

Stella felt a little relieved. At least _someone_ here hadn't come with a friend.

Standing up, fingering the number in her hand, she walked over to the young woman, easing into the seat next to her and giving a small, awkward smile. "You're here for the audition, too?"

The young woman blinked twice and turned to look at Stella. Upon realizing there was someone sitting next to her all of a sudden, she gave a small smile and adjusted her glasses. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Her voice was vaguely familiar to Stella for some reason, but she waved it off as being an ordinary voice or something– most voices sounded kind of familiar to Stella.

Stella adjusted her suit jacket slightly, looking back down at the number in her hands. "Have you… done this a lot?"

The young woman gave another smile. "Yeah, I… guess you could say that, too."

"Oh." Stella scratched her cheek, giving a slightly awkward chuckle. Through a tremendous amount of uptalking herself, she managed to sound less awkward than she would've otherwise. "The last audition I had was an audition for the role of Lucy in 'You're a Good Man Charlie Brown' back in my senior year of high school."

Green– Stella was going to call her that now, she _did_ have very pretty green eyes– gave a light laugh, her shoulders relaxing slightly. They'd been a bit wary a moment earlier. "Ah, I see. The process here is pretty similar. They'll just ask you to read a few lines with different emotions and the different roles being offered. If you get called back at the end you'll do the same thing, just with someone being the person you're addressing."

Stella gave Green a grateful smile. "Ah, thanks. That's pretty similar to what I did back then, too, except I also had to sing something."

"Great, then you'll be set. They have you do a blind read because otherwise you could prepare the heck out of it and they want to see 'the most natural reaction' or something." Green rolled their eyes. "I'm really not sure."

Stella gave a light laugh. "Well, this studio is… unique in its approaches." She should know. She'd followed the studio near-religiously for about two years now.

"Tell me about it." Green adjusted her glasses again, leaning back and giving a friendly smile. "What number are you?"

Stella resisted the urge to check– she'd already memorized the number. "73."

Green gave a sigh, scratching her cheek. "Well, you'll be pretty late in the process then, unless they do the same thing they did last time and just throw all the cards into the air, mix them up, and then call out the numbers in the order collected."

The blonde let out an astonished laugh. "You're kidding. They _actually_ did that?"

"Yes. Yes they did. It took half an hour alone to pick up all the cards."

Stella would've asked more, but right about then someone came onstage and thanked them all for coming, asking number 1 to please come onstage and begin the auditions.

Stella glanced as that casting judge– or director or whatever– sat down in a chair at the front of the crowd, with two other people. Green gave a little laugh and leaned in so that she could whisper into Stella's ear.

Stella felt a shiver run up her spine as Green whispered, softly enough that nobody else could hear but close enough to Stella's ear that she could've kissed it if she leaned in about an inch closer, "I guess they got fed up with randomly reordering it in such a messy way."

"Honestly, I probably would be the same," Stella whispered back, hoping that the darkness of the auditorium hid the way her cheeks had just flushed a bit.

* * *

The first twelve auditions were… horrible. That was the nicest way Stella could put it. The first person was so loud that it left Stella's ears ringing, the second was so quiet that nobody could hear them (especially not after the first auditioner had blown out everyone's eardrums), and the fourth had such a nasally voice that you could barely understand what they were saying. The sixth was decent until you actually had him reciting his lines, the eighth was so monotone that Stella saw three members of the audience nodding off during his audition, and the twelfth burst into tears halfway through the audition and sprinted out of the auditorium.

The thirteenth was a young man wearing a green suit jacket over a yellow sweatervest and a dark blue tie. His hair stood up, and under the stage lights you could see that he'd put some gel in it.

Also, the most noticeable thing about him were his _glasses_. Green's glasses were already fairly thick, but this guy's were thick enough that Stella could've pinched them, removed the glass, and there would've been a noticeable space between her fingers.

"Name, please," the casting director intoned.

"Um– my- my name is Radar," the boy said, rather nervously and in a voice that seemed fairly high pitched for his age. (Actually, how old _was_ this kid? He looked like he was only 17.)

"Okay, Radar, is there a particular role you wanted to try out for?"

"Uh, m-mostly the Intern…"

Stella raised her eyebrow slightly. This kid's personality would certainly fit that role.

"Cute kid," Green murmured.

"He'd definitely fit the Intern role… and his age definitely fits, too," Stella mumbled back.

"Okay, please flip to page 3 and read the lines as indicated."

Radar flipped in the script provided, scanning the lines provided, before taking a deep breath– you could hear the inhale through the microphone– and then taking the microphone off the stand.

Stella blinked. Everyone else had just left the microphone on the stand.

"Oh, Jesse, _there_ you are, I was looking for you!" Radar's tone was still nervous and high-pitched, but now there was a definite business-like tone to it. "There's a _lot_ that we need to get done. The maintenance team needs thirteen more lightbulbs but they're insisting that they get 14 because one of the members is _super_ superstitious, the IT guy wants us to buy him a dead cat even though we already have a bunch–"

"Did he say a dead cat?" Stella whispered to Green.

"You know that fuzzy thing that goes on the boom pole? He's referring to that," Green whispered back.

"Oh."

The casting director cut Radar off. "Second line, please."

Radar promptly segued into a loud yelp, stammering. "Oh man, _oh gosh_ , that is _so_ disorganized! Nothing's been alphabetized– oh _no_ , nothing's color-coded– this is such a _huge_ mess!"

Stella couldn't help but snort. For some reason, that line really fit this kid's personality. In general, this _role_ fit this kid's personality.

"Cut, third line, please."

* * *

The next twenty or so auditions were dull as doornails, Green and Stella occasionally exchanging comments about an audition ("Ugh, 21 is way too childlike to be anyone, even the Intern." "Yeah, if they had a kid role they'd suit that role a lot better."), until sometime around 37.

This guy had brilliantly red hair, the color of a very bright crayon. It was similar to that White Pumpkin character back in Season 1– Cassie Rose, wasn't it?

"Audition Number 37–" the casting director cut himself off and blinked up at him. "Oh, hey, Romeo. Did you take Jesse's suggestion to audition?"

Romeo gave a rather shy grin, adjusting the sleeve of his nondescript gray t-shirt. "Yeah, uh… Cass– uh, my cousin gave me some encouragement."

Green snorted slightly at that, for some reason, but she leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, almost expectantly. "Hey, do you know who this guy is?" she whispered to Cassie.

"Who?"

"He's the music guy at the studio. He's not bad at acting like a bad guy, though, so he's probably auditioning for the rival or the villain's role."

Stella's eyebrow shot up. Romeo Blanc was an _extremely_ good composer and, to date, had composed all of the tracks in Minecraft: Story Mode. She'd never heard anything about him acting, though. "Seriously?" she asked, keeping her voice low.

"Yeah, though most people've never seen him acting, so this'll be fun." Green grinned, giving Stella a bright smile that made Stella's heart skip a beat in surprise. It was surprisingly cute.

The casting director gave Romeo a slightly more realistic smile than he'd been giving the others. "Well, okay. Did you have a particular role you wanted?"

"Uh, I really liked Jack… but I also liked the villain and the rival roles…"

"Okay, we'll start with Jack. Please read the… fourth line on the first page."

Romeo nodded shyly, cheeks tinting slightly as he flipped to the page needed, scanning the lines, before he cleared his throat and began.

For the most part, Stella felt this audition was okay so far. He at least wasn't fumbling his lines every other word, but there wasn't anything particularly outstanding about the performance as Jack. He sounded very… casual.

"Okay, we'll try the villain next. Page four, first line."

Romeo nodded and quickly flipped to the page, scanning it just as quickly as he'd scanned Jack's lines. Then he looked up, inhaled a deep breath, and–

He scoffed, expression twisting into a sarcastic one that spoke volumes about patience. "Oh, you _just don't get it_ , do you? I'm just trying to separate the diamonds from the gravel here, Jesse. Rubbish. Gets. _Dumped_." The last word came out so derisively that Stella actually shrank back in her seat in surprise– he suddenly sounded so condescending. _Huge_ departure from the shy guy that had been standing on the stage.

"Third line."

"I'm _DONE_ –"

Stella flinched as Romeo's voice suddenly deepened into a vicious near- _snarl_. "–letting _you_ make _me_ feel bad. I prefer to feel _good_. And I'm gonna feel _real_ good," Romeo grabbed the microphone off of the stand, making some sounds as the stand rattled a little bit, his voice seething with an almost petty rage befitting of a villain, "when I send you to a place where you'll never see the light of day. _Ever._ **Again**."

"Go, dude," Green said softly, giving an almost mischievous grin. Stella really did have to admit, he _was_ a fantastic actor.

"Second line."

Romeo caught his breath from the near-hellish tone he'd been using at the end, glanced back at the page, and gave a derisive, menacing chuckle. "Oh, Jesse. Jesse, Jesse, _Jesse_ – I just don't understand you! Letting your friends _go_? I mean, _clearly_ they weren't supposed to make it, despite you _dragging_ them everywhere."

His voice grew colder as he glared out over the audience. "Losers… are supposed to _lose_ , Jesse."

"Cut."

Green grinned and gently clapped their hands together softly. "Good _show_ , buddy."

Stella gave a breathless chuckle, leaning over to whisper in Green's ear. "You weren't kidding. He'd make a great villain."

"Of course I wasn't kidding. I'm not a kid."

Stella raised her eyebrow at Green, unable to help the smirk twitching on her lips.

"Huh, tough audience."

Upon which Stella couldn't hold in the giggles anymore and had to bite her knuckles to keep from laughing in the middle of someone's attention.

* * *

Most of the other auditions were fairly nondescript, although there WERE a few that stood out a little more, so Stella zoned out, only paying attention to the numbers being called and the occasional elbow to the side from Green as she pointed out some of the better auditions.

Around number 61, Stella started paying more attention. Her number _was_ coming up in a bit, after all.

62 was an older guy with brown hair streaked with a few strands of gray. One eye was dark enough that Stella could make it out, but the other eye was harder to make out, and Stella figured out why a moment later– the other eye's iris was a pale gray, so it was barely noticeable if you were a good distance away. And if he was even further, Stella would've thought he didn't even _have_ an iris.

"Name?"

"Jack."

Stella couldn't help but grin at the name. "What do you think the odds are of this guy actually wanting to audition for Jack?"

Green gave a light laugh, covering her mouth to cover it up, before lowering it and leveling a daring grin at Stella. "I bet he actually _is_ going to audition for Jack."

Stella grinned at the bet. "Alright, then I bet that he won't. If I win, you… have to tell me your name."

Green made a sound rather like a snort, Stella having to shove her hands up to her mouth to muffle her own giggles. "Well, Little Miss Confident, _when_ I win–" Green gave an impish grin that made Stella's giggles amplify a little– "you have to tell me your name, _and_ give me your number."

Stella's giggles cut off in surprise.

Was this girl asking her out? Trying to be friendly? Friends asked for each other's numbers, right?

"Uh–" Before Stella could ask to clarify, or even give a response, the casting director was already speaking up.

"Okay, Mr. Jack, who are you auditioning for?"

"Jack."

"I win," Green whispered in Stella's ear mischievously, sending more shivers up Stella's spine.

"… right. I'll give you your 'prize' after the auditions are over," Stella whispered back, turning to face Green. The moment she did, she was surprised by how close Green's face was to hers. She could've leaned forward and kissed the other girl if she wanted to.

(God she kinda wanted to, was she weird for wanting to do that? She probably was. Shut up, brain.)

The casting director chuckled a bit. "Okay, please read page 1′s fourth line."

Jack cleared his throat, looking down at the page and checking it, before looking up and clearing his throat again. When he spoke again, his voice was effectively deep, dramatic… heroic. "It's time to chart a course… for Doom Sea."

Green apparently couldn't help it– she let out a brief laugh. Jack glanced up at the laugh and rolled his eyes. "Oh, shut up, it's a cool name," he shot back, in a slightly less dramatic and heroic voice, but still in character.

A laugh rose from the crowd, including the casting director.

Stella glanced back at Jack as he continued reading his lines, dramatic in the perfect places and slow and steady in the slowest, most suspenseful ones.

* * *

Before Stella knew it, 73 was called, and she was rising out of her chair and walking up to the stage, Green giving her a cheerful thumbs' up.

"Name, please."

"Stella. Uh, my name's Stella." _There's half of Green's prize_ , she thought to herself.

"Anybody you planned on trying out for?"

Stella hesitated. "Uh, Intern, Villain, and Rival."

There was a short silence as the casting director scribbled some stuff down on a notebook, before looking back up at her.

"For the Intern role, please flip to page 3 and read line 2."

Stella progressed through the Intern's lines. Rather than take the nervous, skittish approach that Radar had perfected– she wasn't really good at querulous characters like that– she took on a cool, business-like approach, except for the lines where she was supposed to blow up or panic, which she proceeded to do with so much gusto that at one point she nearly fell off the stage.

"Okay, page 4, the villain's lines…"

Romeo had taken on an unpredictable route, so Stella just acted cruel and icy. She sneered condescendingly at 'Jesse' through most of it, her own voice sending chills up her own back at some points. During the lines where Romeo had blown up, Stella spoke so softly and menacingly that she actively saw audience members leaning forward to hear her.

And then she'd blow up, making them all flinch backwards in shock, a flush of pleasure forming in her center as her stiff tongue began to pick through the roles smoothly, her hands gesturing easily with each role.

"Page 2, the rival."

Most of the previous auditions for the rival had been so sarcastic, cocky and unlikeable that Stella had been tempted to boo them right off the stage. Yes, the rival wasn't supposed to be someone that you _liked_ , but hatred was reserved for the villain, not a mere _rival_.

"Line 1, please."

Stella cleared her throat and scanned the line. Okay, this was easy, she could do this…

"Ohhh, look who it is!" Stella said, adopting so much fake cheer and sweetness that it made her teeth tingle, "Jesse, leader of Beacontown!" Her voice took on a cooler tone a moment later. "And my sworn rival."

"Cut, line 3."

Stella nodded as she scanned this line as well, considering what it said. This time, she took on more of a petulant tone– less sweet and more petty. "I do _not_ know what kind of mind games you are trying to bring into our rivalry," she snapped, sounding annoyed, "but I'll tell you now they are _not_ going to work on me."

The casting director cut her off again. "Cut, line 2."

This line seemed different every time it was read– Stella had noticed several people reading it with so much sarcasm that you could tell they were being fake, some sneering condescendingly, some acting patronizing.

Time for her own take on it.

"Jesse, I _really_ appreciate you helping me out back there. Love ya. Mean it. But you clearly have no idea what this… this _paragon_ is offering," Stella said, breezily and sweetly as before.

And then she winked.

A few more moments of silence as the casting director wrote a few more notes down.

"Alright, thank you."

Stella gave a polite curtsy and walked off of the stage briskly, handing off the script to the next person and flouncing down in her seat from before.

Green gave her a friendly grin. "That was _awesome_ , Stella," she whispered.

"Ah– thank you," Stella replied, touching her heart and feeling it pound away so fast and hard that it felt like someone was jackhammering around inside her chest.

"I'll honestly be pretty surprised if you _don't_ get cast as at least _one_ of the roles." Green gave her a light pat on the back, hand lingering on her shoulder for a moment longer than it had to.

Stella wondered when she'd swallowed some butterflies.

* * *

"Okay, everyone, thank you again for coming!" The casting director announced, emerging after several minutes of deliberation and making Stella look up. Green had disappeared off to some place a minute before and still hadn't come back.

"Getting a callback does _not_ necessarily mean you have been cast; we're simply asking those with a callback to come back for further auditioning. Please stay and wait backstage if you've been called back; otherwise you may leave." The casting director looked down at his clipboard and called out a few numbers.

13\. 17. 37. 49. 55. 62.

And 73.

Stella had been called back.

She'd been _called back_.

"Again, thank you for coming, if you have a callback please come backstage."

Many of the other people around Stella got up, a small handful walking their way to the stage and the others streaming out of the auditorium doors.

There was Radar, some other young girl that Stella had barely paid attention to (Binta?), Romeo, some guy with a shaved head and pale blue eyes (His name was Gordon or something), a woman with sharp features (her name was Xara, Stella was fairly certain), Jack himself, and of course Stella.

"Okay, guys, we really liked your auditions, but we wanted to get a better look and see how you'd interact with one of the main characters of Minecraft: Story Mode, since you're going to have to interact with them for most of the series," the casting director said, when the last straggler had filed through the doors, "and your role kind of _really_ depends on interactions with them."

The casting director paused. "Also, depending on the way you're able to play off of each other, we might ask them for their opinion on casting, so… go for it."

Stella couldn't help but feel nervous. Of course _Green_ had liked her audition, but this person _wasn't_ going to be Green–

"Does this have something to do with that rumor that the main actress for Female Jesse– you know, the one that showed up in most of the teasers– was going to be here today?" Radar asked, in a nervous voice.

"She _was_ here. That wasn't really a rumor," Romeo muttered.

The casting director gave a sheepish grin. "Yeah, uh… we're going to have you interact with Jesse, basically."

"Ugh, sorry, Eric, I think I left my contact lenses at home."

Stella's head snapped around to see Green walking into the room, black hair no longer up in a messy bun but hanging around her face nicely. A gold pin pinned it back, and her blouse was off. In fact, if she'd been wearing overalls over a red-sleeved white t-shirt and she hadn't been wearing glasses over it, she would've been the spitting image of the white Female Jesse.

Especially the height. Stella hadn't noticed before because they'd both been sitting down, but Green was _short_.

"No problem, Jessi. Guys, this is Jessi with an 'I', one of the lead actresses in Minecraft: Story Mode," 'Eric' said, casually.

Stella was trying to keep her jaw from smacking into the floor. She'd been sitting next to Jesse (Jessi, she supposed) the whole time?

Jessi smiled easily at them, lifting her hand in a wave. "Hey, guys, nice to meet you. I'm Jessi. Listen, there's no pressure to do your best– just try to stay in character the whole time, yeah?"

"Aye-aye, boss!" Radar snapped into his 'Intern' character, putting his hand to his forehead in salute.

Binta nodded, tossing some of her black hair over her shoulder and giving a pleasant smile. "Certainly."

Gordon gave a light shrug. "Very well."

Xara gave a low huff, ruffling one hand through her hair. "Well, I suppose that works," she muttered, sounding tired.

Romeo gave Jessi a shy grin. "Well… you _are_ the one who asked me to come."

Jessi smirked. "I'm aware, Rome."

Jack crossed his arms and gave a warm smile. "Of course, I'm open to ideas."

"I–" Stella cleared her throat, feeling her cheeks warm up. "Of-of course, Jessi, that– that works."

Jessi grinned when she spotted Stella. "Ahhh, you got called back too. I really did like your performance. You're _very_ good at interpreting roles."

"Ah-ah… th-thank-thank you," Stella stammered, feeling her cheeks grow even warmer.

* * *

Radar and Jessi immediately hit off acting like a very nervous intern and his much more laid-back boss, Jessi giving him smiles that made Stella's stomach leap a little in surprise.

( _Seriously_ , she'd been sitting next to _Jesse_ the whole time?)

Binta and Jessi didn't have as close of a relationship as Radar and Jessi were able to go with, but they still had a pretty nice rapport.

Stella watched Jessi interact with Gordon next, who'd apparently tried out for the rival role himself. Jessi sounded sincerely sympathetic at times, but for the most part the Gordon seemed more menacing than cocky or like a rival.

Xara's interaction with Jessi was less villain and hero and more… very-intense-woman (because _oh my lord_ , if Romeo's acting had been villainous, Xara's had been so frightening that Stella had seen Radar crawl under his seat from her chair) and hero. It was still a very interesting interaction, though.

Then Jack and Jessi started tag-teaming, hero and older hero, and they immediately had Jessi being slightly skeptical and wary about the older hero after the whole Order-of-the-Stone incident, yet willing to be helpful and kind. As the minutes ticked on, they became more friendly and even were able to bounce some improv with each other.

Romeo and Jessi got along immediately, Jessi able to seem extremely annoyed with his arrogant, unpredictable, almost insane-at-times behavior, while also appearing rather concerned. For his part, Romeo's able to seem enamored by Jesse before getting angry at them.

Then it's Stella's turn, and she's standing up next to Jessi with a piece of script in her hands.

Jessi adjusts her glasses, glancing at the script. "I think the casting director liked your rival bit best… we're going to try going with that first, alright?"

Eric nods. "Yeah, we'll just jump around the script areas that I need to check out."

"Yes. Alright. Sure." Stella clears her throat awkwardly before she can start rambling.

Jessi gives her a cheerful grin, before adopting a cooler expression and inclining her head at Stella. "Stella."

"Ohhh, look who it is!" Stella touches her collarbone and gives a mock-delighted expression. "Jesse, leader of Beacontown! And my sworn rival."

Jessi promptly arched her eyebrow, shifting so that one hand rested on her hip. "Sorry, I don't think we've ever met before…"

This girl managed to somehow sound awkward, confused, and wary at the same time.

"Our rivalry? Beacontown versus Champion City?" Stella 'reminded' Jessi, tilting her head to one side and regarding Jessi with a dismissive look as she 'urged' Jessi to go along with this. " _Surely_ you think about it as much as I do?"

Annnnd now starts the improv in this part; apparently this scene hadn't been written yet. So it was time to improv this choice.

Based on what Jessi said, of course.

Jessi finally gave a nod and crossed her arms. "Yes, that's right, my… rival, I am here to finally meet you face to face," she said, a little pompously to cover up for the awkwardness and fake quality.

Stella gave a condescending smirk. "Yeah. _That's_ what I thought."

Jessi gave her eyes a roll. "Huh. Too bad your personality isn't as pretty as you are."

Stella blinked, taken aback by how sarcastically GreenJessi said this, before scoffing and touching her collarbone. "Oh, _Jessi_ , sweetie, that's _far_ too petty. Don't act like a child."

Jessi didn't even hesitate, segueing quickly into her next bit. "Says the one who won't give Petra's sword back."

"Oh, please, she _willingly_ gave it to me," Stella shot back, trying to keep up with wherever Jessi was going with this. "But if you _must_ know, it's in my treasure room. By the way, Jessi, _way_ nicer than yours."

"And cut! Thank you guys, I think I had a good enough look at that…"

After some more quick thanks and some 'please check your email', the casting director dismissed them to go home.

Stella had barely made it to the door when she heard someone calling her name. Twisting around, she could see it was Jessi.

"Oh… hello, Jessi." Stella shifted around to give Jessi a smile. "I… still find it funny that I was sitting next to you the whole time and really didn't know who you were."

Jessi giggled, covering their mouth a little bit.

Notch this girl is seriously adorable.

"Yeah, I was wondering when you were going to ask me for my name. Anyway, two things. One, you still owe me your number."

Stella stared blankly at Jessi before remembering the bet they'd made earlier. "Oh, right, I– yes, alright, I think I've got a pen…" Stella rummaged around, finding her pen, before grabbing Jessi's wrist and scrawling down the number in slightly crooked handwriting.

Jessi grinned. "Thanks. Second, you got the role."

Stella paused, blinking.

"What?"

"Judging by what we're looking for, and the way you interpreted the rival, I think you're likely going to get the rival part. Almost certainly." Jessi paused, before giving her a sheepish smile. "Also, I gave Eric my two cents, and you'd definitely make a more likeable rival than half of the people who tried out."

Stella smirked and squared her shoulders. "Only half, sweetie?"

That elicited a laugh from the shorter girl. "Okay, almost all of 'em. You certainly had a really nice interpretation."

"Thanks, Jessi," was the slightly awkward reply, the blonde woman scratching her cheek and meeting green eyes with her own hazel. "I was honestly feeling pretty weird about this whole thing."

Jessi grinned, a grin that was familiar from the times Stella had played Minecraft: Story Mode. "Oh, no problem. We'll send you something soon, alright?"

"Alright." Stella inclined her head professionally and left the room, trying not to shoot glances back in Jessi's direction. (The blush on her cheeks was growing to the point where you could _really_ see it.)

* * *

Two weeks had passed, and Stella had done some ghostwriting for a few clients. She was flipping through her mail and checking for her latest payment, before she spotted something.

It was the game studio's logo.

Taking the envelope and flipping it open, she let her hazel eyes skim over the page, a huge smile spreading over her face as she read and reread the words that she'd been half-expecting since Jessi's prediction.

" _Dear Ms. Albert, we are happy to say that you have gotten the role_ …"

Jessi had been right.

* * *

 **Yes, I'm aware that Antimo and Welles are the ones who actually composed the soundtracks for MCSM. This was just a Craft My Story translation.**

 **OH MAN this turned out being so much longer than I expected haha**

 **I might make this a continuous oneshot series or a story or something. What do you guys think? Five likes will be a 'yes', three is a 'maybe', and one or less is a 'no'.**

 **Comment if you liked it I guess haha**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	11. The Daily Sunshine

"I've never done this before."

Jesse looked up, blinking almost owlishly at Xara from where they're sitting on the other side of the kitchen table that is a little dusty.

Well, that is _usually_ a little dusty. Romeo and Xara have made their usual monthly stop in Beacontown to buy materials and figure stuff out and all that, so Jesse invited them over for breakfast. Xara being Xara, she woke up early and found Jesse already up drinking some coffee and reading the newspaper.

"Done what?"

"Read a newspaper–"

Jesse looked up a little more, quirking their eyebrow in confusion. "You've never read a _newspaper_ before?"

"I wasn't _finished_." Xara shot Jesse a pointed look, the much shorter hero ducking their head a little sheepishly and giving her a rather awkward grin. Once they'd subsided, she continued, "As I was _saying_ , I've never read a newspaper with so much… gossip in it."

The purple-haired woman turned to stare at the newspaper. "Especially with gossip about people I know."

Instantly, Jesse's usually-innocent expression turns into a devilish grin. "Oh, you get used to it, especially from The Daily Sunshine. They write the _weirdest_ things."

As if on cue, Lukas walked into the room, the blonde author running his hand through his hair and making it a little more disheveled. One hand was precariously balancing a cup of coffee, while the other was cradling a notebook in the crook of his elbow and the hand was holding a copy of the Daily Sunshine.

"Jesse, I just thought I'd let you know we're getting a divorce."

Jesse hummed absentmindedly as Xara proceeded to choke on her coffee, throat trying to force it out of her mouth but hand trying to keep it in. The result was that a good amount of the dark liquid ended up in her lap.

"Is it 'cause I'm kissing Petra?" Jesse asked casually, turning the page of the newspaper and scanning it.

Lukas read a little deeper into the article. "No, it's because I'm kissing Petra."

"Could you kindly let me have my affairs in peace, Lukas?" Jesse asked mildly, before tapping an article on the first page. "Xara, look, there's a little one about you; apparently you're plotting world domination."

Xara blinked at Jesse.

"Are… are you not concerned about these articles?" Xara glanced down at the one that claimed that Jesse and Lukas were getting a divorce. "I mean, getting people to believe that you two are getting _divorced_ , let alone that you two are married…"

Jesse smirked. "Xara, these articles have been running for two months. They posted a tiny article in one issue saying that it was just a joke newspaper. The people who actually _believe_ the stories are a major minority."

A short pause.

"Wow, I just made an oxymoron."

The smirk turned into an eager grin. "C'mon, read the one where you're plotting world domination, it's really funny."

Xara turned her gaze to the mentioned article. A low chuckle exited her mouth when she realized exactly how _silly_ the article was. "Alright, you're right."

"I'm surprised we didn't divorce initially with that affair you had with Stella," Lukas remarked absentmindedly, setting his coffee down and sliding into the seat on Xara's right. He opened his notebook and started making little notes in the margins.

Jesse grinned. "Yeah, Stella thought that was _super_ funny, if the way she nearly laughed her head off when she came to tell me about it was any indication. I think the reason we didn't divorce was 'cause you had that showdown with her for my hand or whatnot."

"The one I was totally unaware of until you came to me laughing so hard you nearly choked, yes," Lukas agreed mildly.

Radar stuck his head through the door, beaming at Jesse and holding onto a huge planning book that details all plans and schedules for the next five months down to the last little detail. Sometimes Xara wondered how exactly he managed to keep all of that straight. "Good morning, Jesse! Did you see that article in the Daily Sunshine about Petra?"

"What, the one where she and I are having an affair?"

Xara flipped the page, fighting down the urge to grin like a total idiot at the article titled ' _Intern-al Affairs'_ , complete with a picture of Jesse and Radar standing together looking for all intents and purposes as if they were on a date. Honestly, at this point Xara was starting to wonder how the newspaper got some of these pictures.

"No, the one where Petra was revealed to be a werewolf." Radar said that so mildly that if you weren't paying attention to what he'd been saying you would've thought he was making an absentminded comment about the weather.

"Oh, no, that one must be later in, then…" Jesse started flipping through the pages, eyes flicking through the pages as they tried to track down that one article. "I mean, Lukas and I've got good taste in monsters, then."

Lukas shrugged slightly, making a few marks in his notebook as he noted that down. "Yeah, you could do a whole lot worse. We could be having an affair with the Ad- Romeo."

Xara was in the middle of taking a new sip of coffee when he said this. She promptly turned her head to the right, burying her head into her elbow and doing a spit-take because _good Notch_ she was now cackling like a maniac.

"Actually, last week there was an article where Olivia was dating Romeo," she managed, when she no longer had coffee up her nose.

It was a good thing she hadn't changed yet.

Lukas slammed down the coffee cup and swiped his notebook out of the way at the same time, slopping some hot-but-not-scalding coffee all over the kitchen table while also keeping the precious notebook safe. He'd now started laughing like a maniac. " _What?!"_

"Yeah, it was all over the front page. Surprised you didn't see," Jesse said mildly, turning the page and still looking for the one where Petra was a werewolf. "We sent it to Xara."

Xara gave a grin that quickly turned predatory. "Romeo turned a lovely shade of red when he saw that article." She doesn't mention that she had to walk around a building and laugh like a mad scientist for twelve minutes upon reading the article.

Jesse turned the page, and their eyebrow immediately shot up. They looked at Xara and wordlessly turned the paper around to show a picture of Petra sitting under the moon and looking…

Well, let's put it this way, if Jesse was sexually attracted to people, they probably would've been tempted to jump in bed with Petra. Seriously, how did the Daily Sunshine get these pictures? If it was Photoshopped, then it was done _phenomenally_ well.

"Well, I think I found it…"

"Here, let me have a look." Xara took the paper and scanned the article absentmindedly, noticing phrases like 'lycanthrope' and 'bloodthirsty, lust-driven monster' but not really paying attention to the rest of the article. "Hm, they've got a good vocabulary."

"Really? Usually they just have cliffhangers and bait people with the title," Jesse said, looking interested and like they wanted the paper back.

Xara gave a mild hum, checking the article more carefully and handing it back to Jesse. "Well, then they have expanded their vocabulary."

"Ooh, mind if I have a look?"

"Knock yourself out," Jesse said mildly after giving the article a glance-over, handing the newspaper over to Lukas, before glancing up at Radar. "Any other articles of note, Radar?"

Xara lifted her coffee cup to take another sip– as of so far she'd spit out more than she'd actually consumed.

"Did you spot the article where you and I are having an affair?" Radar asked briskly, having started flipping through the schedule and checking the schedule for today.

Xara set the cup back down, biting her lip and trying not to laugh. Romeo had teased her back before becoming an Admin– _a long time ago_ about her laugh sounding like a very amused hyena's.

Jesse repressed a huge laugh as Lukas nearly knocked his coffee over at that comment, barely saving the newspaper from being ruined beyond legibility. "Yes, I did, actually, though I didn't read it. Anything else?"

"Mmm, there's one where Mevia and Ivor are planning revenge and plotting to destroy the world…"

"How does that work? Mevia barely ever comes around," Jesse said, mildly. Upon spotting Xara's raised eyebrow, they clarified, "Um, Mevia's this lady that we met in a different world. She's really good at fighting, she can be _super_ intense…"

Jesse paused.

"Actually, you might get along with her."

Xara gave a huff of laughter. "I'm taking your word for this."

"Not sure; I think they claimed that Ivor 'rescued' her from that world; he's now having an affair with her even though he's married to Harper."

"Ahh, there's the affair. I was wondering about when it was going to show up."

Lukas knocked over his cup of coffee.

Xara put her head in her hands, kneading the bridge of her nose and concealing the stupid grin spreading over her face– one that Fred would've gently poked fun at her for, one that Romeo had hugged her for once and then run away because 'you looked so _happy_ and it was super cute', one that she was starting to wonder if she could show it to these kids because they were _kids_ , they were _children_ , they were wonderful and weird and silly and it was like being back in the cabin again.

She'd never done this before.

But she was certainly going to come back and do it again.


	12. Change

Jesse and Stella don't make up right away.

It's understandable; Stella doesn't even live in the same city, and she has her... well, quirks, to say the least.

It's hard to get past her arrogance. She thinks she can't do anything wrong (and when she does, she refuses to admit it) and she thinks she's all that and a bag of chips. Almost puts herself higher than Jesse.

("Stella, this is not rocket science. You offended that guy. Ya gotta apologize."

"Well, he was rude to me first."

"He bumped into you on _accident_."

"Still." Stella crosses her arms almost petulantly, daring Jesse to say anything. And they should. They should scold her like she's a child until she snaps something out and storms away and lets her tea go cold.

Instead, the bite their tongue and slowly let their head thud onto the table. "I'm going to rip all my hair out...")

But she does seem to slowly realize that it's not all about her, and slowly shift aside on the stage to let others take the spotlight from time to time.

( _And sometimes she shares it with Jesse._ )

It's hard to get past her putting everyone down. Her stealing people's items and forcing them to work for her, snubbing them so that they just make Champion City even better to try to be champions themselves, manipulating people like she's a spider and they're all caught in her web.

("Don't."

"What?"

"You're going to twist everything I just said to make it sound like you're the victim. I'm sick of it. Do you just manipulate everyone?"

 _Do you just manipulate the people that love you until you tangle it up in the web you weave and strangle it until it turns into something else entirely?_ are the words that go unsaid on Jesse's tongue.

"... well-"

"No. If you're going to try to sound like the victim, try it with someone who cares."

This visit ends sourly, with Jesse slamming the door shut behind them and Stella emptily watching it swing back and forth until the door has long stopped swinging and the sky is painted with hues of pink and purple and their tea has gone icy cold.)

But she does eventually release the strings, and slowly- when it comes to things she doesn't care about- she begins to let the items wander back to their rightful owners.

(It might help that Jesse scolds her about it.)

It's VERY hard to get past insults that make Jesse feel like they're talking to Aiden again, back when they were seventeen and still had Reuben meandering around their feet.

Stella doesn't stop insulting them for a long while, doesn't stop shooting little jabs that are like pokes to the side at best and like knives in their heart at worst. But Jesse is patient with her-

("You can't just say stuff like that, Stella."

"Why not?"

"Because anyone else would probably have decked you at this point."

"And you haven't?"

 _No, because I happen to like you a tiny bit, but others might not grant you that courtesy_ , Jesse wants to reply, but they swallow it.

"I would prefer not to break your pretty face."

"You think I'm pretty? Oh, thank you, sweetie.")

\- and eventually the knives turn to pokes and the pokes turn to teasing fun that they both insult each other cheerfully and with free rein.

("You're the ugliest lady alive."

"Oh? Well, then, you must be a fool for being with me.")

It's hard not to hate her for all of her annoying, awful, conniving, manipulative traits that make Stella feel like a snotty cheerleader from a high school movie (and make Jesse want to go bald from ripping out all of their hair).

But, Jesse concludes their mental essay as Stella rests her head on theirs in a slow but definite motion of affection and pulls them closer so they're resting against her, people do change.

"You're really not good at this, sweetie, you're supposed to actually engage in the cuddling."

"I am not the cuddler. I'm the cuddlee. You give me the cuddles."

"Well I wasn't informed of this, so you have to engage."

"Alright, fine, Miss Bossy."

Even if that change happens tediously slowly.


End file.
